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It’s just an ordinary day at the Sri Ayuthaya crocodile farm in Thailand, where some 150,000 Siamese freshwater crocodiles are raised for their meat and hides. The species was hunted to near extinction in Thailand in the 1990s, with only one hundred estimated to be remaining in the wild. Sri Ayuthaya has been breeding the animals in captivity for more than forty years and is licensed by CITES to sell products made from the critically endangered species. The farm is one of the largest in Thailand, which produces some 1.2 million of the toothy reptiles on about one thousand farms, releasing some to bolster wild populations. The crocodiles are fed various chicken parts, heads, and offal from processing plants. Sri Ayuthaya is fully integrated with its own slaughterhouse, tannery, and luxury leather goods production facilities on-site. A woman’s crocodile handbag runs around $2,300, while a full crocodile suit costs nearly $6,000, for that sharp-dressed man. Most of Sri Ayuthaya’s products are sold in China.

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It’s just an ordinary day at the Sri Ayuthaya crocodile farm in Thailand, where some 150,000 Siamese freshwater crocodiles are raised for their meat and hides. The species was hunted to near extinction in Thailand in the 1990s, with only one hundred estimated to be remaining in the wild. Sri Ayuthaya has been breeding the animals in captivity for more than forty years and is licensed by CITES to sell products made from the critically endangered species. The farm is one of the largest in Thailand, which produces some 1.2 million of the toothy reptiles on about one thousand farms, releasing some to bolster wild populations. The crocodiles are fed various chicken parts, heads, and offal from processing plants. Sri Ayuthaya is fully integrated with its own slaughterhouse, tannery, and luxury leather goods production facilities on-site. A woman’s crocodile handbag runs around $2,300, while a full crocodile suit costs nearly $6,000, for that sharp-dressed man. Most of Sri Ayuthaya’s products are sold in China.

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