The Thai farmer wanted to prevent his crocodiles from escaping into the local community.
Then he killed the endangered animals.
– I had to make the most difficult decision of my life, he says to CNN.
A Thai crocodile farmer nicknamed ‘Crocodile X’ has killed more than 100 endangered crocodiles to prevent them from escaping after a typhoon damaged their enclosure, reports CNN.
Natthapak Khumkad, 37, runs a crocodile farm in Lamphun in northern Thailand. After typhoon Yagi wreaked havoc and destroyed the Siamese crocodiles’ home, he tried to find them a new one. But nothing was big enough or safe. To prevent the crocodiles from escaping into the local community, he killed 125 of them.
– I had to make the most difficult decision of my life, he says to CNN.
Explains the plot: “People’s Lives”
The typhoon had damaged a wall that secured the crocodiles’ enclosure – so much so that it was in danger of collapsing.
– My family and I discussed that if the wall were to collapse, the damage to people would be much greater than we can control. It would be about people’s lives and the safety of the public, he told CNN.
Natthapak Khumkad says his farm has been open for 17 years and survived every rainy season until this year when several days of heavy rain sabotaged the wall.
– I had to make a decision in less than 24 hours when I saw that the erosion was progressing quickly, says the Thai farmer.
Killed them with electricity
He goes on to tell CNN that he euthanized them with electricity. Pornthip Nualanong, the head of Lamphun’s fisheries department, believes that it “was a brave and responsible decision” to kill the crocodiles. This is because if any of the adult crocodiles had escaped, it would pose a serious safety risk.
The Siamese crocodiles are critically endangered but they are sold and bred in Thailand. Breeding crocodiles is a lucrative industry. Approximately 1,100 registered commercial farms generate between six and seven billion Thai baht, which corresponds to roughly 2.1 billion Swedish kronor.