“During the shows, the crocodile is cruelly prodded with sticks so that a staff member can later lie on it and another puts his arm inside its mouth,” Friends of Orang Utan (Malaysia) director Upreshpal Singh said.
He said their investigation team learned from one of the farm worker that he was once injured during a performance.
“Do we want to wait for another incident like the one which happened in Sandakan?” he asked, referring to a 35-year-old worker who was mauled by a 800kg crocodile that he was feeding at a crocodile farm in Sandakan in February 2017.
Friends of Orang Utan said that such shows should be stopped before something serious happened.
The NGO, which has been monitoring conditions of zoos and mini-zoos in Malaysia, also noted that the condition in the crocodile farm in question had remained unchanged for over five years.
They believe that many other animals like macaques, ostriches, otters and birds among others had died there and yet it would be receiving more animals, pending approval from the Sabah Wildlife Department.
The department, Upreshpal said, should put a stop to this.
He said the state government should also shut down a mini-zoo in Sandakan which has been an eyesore and a bane to animals.
The animals, he claimed, were kept in tiny or barren enclosures or cages.
During an animal show at the mini zoo, the NGO found a macaque chained around its neck and paraded before the crowd and made to perform tricks including riding a stationary bike.
