2 arrested for selling photo ops with endangered animals

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Two women were arrested for using endangered animals to make money on Walking Street.

Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division and Tourist Police officers as well as employees from the Freeland Foundation animal rights group apprehended Paveena Phromphuck, 21, and Penpat Watphaenlam, 29, shortly after midnight March 15. Two slow lorises were seized.

Paveena Phromphuck and Penpat Watphaenlam have been arrested for possessing and exploiting an endangered species. Paveena Phromphuck and Penpat Watphaenlam have been arrested for possessing and exploiting an endangered species.

Police said the women confessed to offering tourists a chance to pose with a cute loris for 100 baht a photo. They had bought the endangered animals from a friend, the women told police.

The arrests came after a tipoff from the Freeland Foundation.

Both suspects were jailed at Pattaya Police Station and the animals were taken to the Banglamung Wildlife Breeding Center.