Bua Noi, the ‘world’s loneliest gorilla,’ has been caged in a Thailand shopping mall for 32 years
Animal rights activists are doing everything they can to free Bua Noi, known as the “world’s saddest gorilla,” from a zoo whose owners would not release her unless they receive a sizable payment.
Since she was a little child, the gorilla has been imprisoned in a zoo in Thailand that is above a shopping mall.
Zoo says won’t be freed for less than $7,80,000
Bua resides on the top floor of a dilapidated department shop in a small, dirty box with rusted metal bars. Campaigners and animal activists in Thailand have been working to rescue the primate from captivity for many years. Unfortunately, they recently failed again because the zoo owner would not sell her for less than $7,80,000.
Bua Noi, whose name translates to “Little Lotus,” arrived from Germany in 1990, when she was barely a year old, in Thailand’s Pata shopping center. Since 2015, bosses of the Pata shopping mall have defied pleas to release Bua from the Thai government animal rights group PETA and even pop singer Cher. The activists want the animal to be transferred to a sanctuary in Germany with other gorillas.
According to reports, the zoo’s owner notified Thailand’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Varawut Silpa-archa that she would release Bua in exchange for payment of US$782,000 (30 million Thai baht).
Bua Noi is thought of as private property
The ministry has been holding fund-raising events, according to Thanetpol Thanaboonyawat, secretary to the minister of Natural Resources and Environment, but hasn’t been successful in gathering enough money to pay the zoo owners.
“We have held activities in the past campaigning for Bua Noi’s release and to raise funds. We collected donations from Bua Noi’s supporters. But the problem is that the owner refuses to sell Bua Noi. When he does agree to sell her, the price is too high,” said Thanetpol Thanaboonyawat.
There isn’t much that can be done to remove Bua Noi because she is thought of as private property, according to Thanaboonyawat.
In 2015, officials of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation closed down the rundown zoo due to a lack of correct paperwork. But it eventually reopened with Bua in their cage.
PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker said Bua’s living conditions are ‘horrifying and cruel’ He urged the activists to keep their pressure on Pata Zoo and to ‘demand that it let PETA help retire these animals to reputable sanctuaries that would meet their physical and mental needs’.