Govt files complaint against men who used hawk to hunt

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation filed a complaint on Thursday against several men who used a hawk to hunt protected birds in Chachoengsao province.

The department said their actions contravened wildlife conservation and protection laws.

Mam Phodam, a social media user who raises social issues on Facebook, recently shared and condemned clips that the hawk’s owner posted online, in which he boasted about how he and his friends hunted birds with the hawk.

Soontorn Chaiwatana, acting director of the Wildlife Conservation Office, said the department has filed a complaint at Bang Nam Priao Police Station against the people who appeared in the video clips and in a photo also posted on Facebook.

The department wants them charged with the illegal hunting of protected animals under the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act BE 2535.

He said it is quite clear that the hunted birds seen in the photo are on the protected list and included white-breasted waterhens.

The hawk used to hunt them was likely a Harris hawk imported from overseas and can be owned legally, Mr Soontorn said.

He said it is okay to own the hawk as long as it is for recreational purposes, but it is against the law to use it to hunt protected birds.

“We’ve already pursued charges against those appearing in the video clips and photos. If found guilty, they could be imprisoned for up to four years or fined up to 40,000 baht, or both,” he said.

Rungsrit Kanjanavanit, a well-known bird conservationist and vice chairman of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, said the men’s actions were potentially very “harmful” to the local ecological system.

Introducing any non-native hunter into a strange environment will result in an imbalance of the ecological system and lead to a decreasing number of other predators and their prey, he said.

It is not proper to possess a non-native hawk which does not help support the wildlife trade, and can potentially reduce the number of species in nature. It goes completely against the concept of wildlife conservation, he said.