The hunt for the lion cub, now known to be a female cub called “Nong Kiwi”, and its owner began after Chinthep Kanghae, head of the Khao Phra Thaew Non-Hunting Area in Thalang, which serves as the office responsible for wildlife animals in Phuket, led an inspection of the cafe, The Glass House Cafe and Space on Ratsada-Anusorn Rd, in Moo 2, Ratsada, on Monday (Feb 12).
Pol Col Arun Wachirasrisukanya, Deputy Commander of Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, along with Pol Col Apisan Chairat, Superintendent of Region 5, Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, led the investigation joined by Phuket City Police and wildlife conservation officers
While the inspection of the cafe failed to find Nong Kiwi or its owner, it was learned that Nong Kiwi was brought to the cafe for two to three hours a day, then taken back to a hotel in Chalong.
Officers tracked down the owner, now confirmed to be a Chinese woman, whose name so far has been withheld by officials.
A document has been released in connection with the case that names the buyer of a female lion cub as Cheung Min. The document shows Cheung Min bought a female lion cub from Fuanglada Siyangnok in Bangkok on Jan 9 for the amount of B250,000.
However, officials have confirmed that there has been no registered change of ownership for Nong Kiwi, and the microchip number presented on the document does not match the microchip in Nong Kiwi ‒ simply because Nong Kiwi has no microchip.
This has led officials to believe that the name on the document is not the same person caught with Nong Kiwi in Phuket. In a confusing move, police have not clarified whether or not the document was presented to police by the Chinese woman arrested, or whether the Chinese woman’s name is Cheung Min.
Regardless, the Chinese woman arrested in Phuket has been taken to Phuket City Police Station and charged under the Wild Animal Preservation and Protection Act for “failing to notify the possession of wild animals and moving a protected wild animal without permission”, officials have confirmed.
Officials found that where Nong Kiwi was being kept did not meet the criteria under the Act, deemed that it was not appropriate to issue the owner a license to raise a lion cub.
Nong Kiwi was confiscated and handed over to the “relevant department” to raise and care for, officials said.