Between 1998 and 2010, the tiger population in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma/Myanmar dropped 70 percent, from 1,200 tigers in 1998 to 350 in 2010.

Source: AFP, “Mekong tiger population at ‘crisis point’: WWF,” Yahoo News, January 26, 2010.

Up to 30,000 dogs are illegally smuggled across borders from Thailand and into Vietnam and Laos to be sold for its meat. The dogs are sold by traffickers for an average of $10 a dog, thus creating an estimated $3.6 Million market.

Source:  Patrick Winn, “The Dog Meat Mafia: Corruption,” GlobalPost, November 27, 2009.

According to the WWF, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand are the three top countries in 2009 that were involved in the selling of elephant ivory.

Source: “Worry over ivory trade increase,” WWF, November 17, 2009.

In 2009, Thailand stationed 1,500 troops on its norther border with Burma/Myanmar for the purpose of drug interdiction.

Source: Thomas Fuller, “Myanmar Drug Trade Surges Along Thai Border,” New York Times, September 30, 2009.

Authorities in Thailand had a 2,100 percent increase in heroin seizures in 2009 compared to the previous year.

1,268 kilograms of heroin was seized leading up to August 2009, compared to 57 kilograms the previous year.

Source:  Thomas Fuller, “Myanmar Drug Trade Surges Along Thai Border,” New York Times, September 30, 2009.

• 2 out of 3 tourists to Thailand are unaccompanied men.
• 90 percent of all Thai men have visited a prostitute at least once.

Source:  Siddarth Kara, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, (New York: Colombia University Press, 2009), page 176.

Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network TRAFFIC reported that Thailand is the world’s largest market for illegal elephant ivory. TRAFFIC found over 26,000 products that were made from ivory for sale in retail outlets. 70 percent of the stores that were selling ivory products were located in the city of Bangkok.

Source:  TRAFFIC, “Elephant-size loopholes sustain Thai ivory trade,”TRAFFIC-Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network website, June 19, 2009.

According to a poll by the Research Institute of Bangkok University, 80 percent of the residents of Bangkok purchase counterfeit and pirated goods.  Of the counterfeit buyers, 48.6 percent say that the cheaper price of the knockoff is a key factor in their purchase.

Source:  “Majority of Bangkokians opt for pirated goods: poll,” MCOT English News, August 13, 2009.