The following report was written by a British tourist, visiting the Tiger Temple on a tourist day trip from Bangkok, at the end of December 2009. This is the full report, and has not been edited or changed.

"Despite hearing mixed reviews on the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi , Thailand - some tourists saying it was a good experience, other tourists and ex-volunteers saying it was horrible - my husband and I decided that we would go to the temple anyway, and make our own minds up. I sincerely wish that we hadn't.

"We both paid 4500 Thai Baht (approx £84 GBP, 95 Euros, 135 US Dollars) to be allowed into the Tiger Temple for the morning feeding session. After being led up to the temple pavillion where the monks were praying, we were both given a baby's bottle of milk, which was put into a tiger's mouth for us. I thought my cub looked a bit too big to be having a bottle, and when I asked how old he was, I was told by Tiger Temple staff he was 1 year old.

"I checked on the internet afterwards, and found out that a tiger cub in captivity, when treated properly, can be weaned off milk and onto solid food in 16 weeks. I can only assume that this 1 year old tiger at the temple was still being bottle fed like a baby to please the tourists. I was pretty uncomfortable with this, but didn't say anything at the time.

"We were then introduced to 2 tiny 1 week old baby tiger cubs, and the temple staff asked the tourists not to pick them up as their spines were still forming and soft, and could be easily damaged. Several tourists ignored this and manhandled the cubs, but were not told off by the staff. One staff member told us that she was handrearing the cubs. I was concerned as everyone knows babies need their mum, and asked if the mother tiger was ok. The staff member told me that the mother tiger was fine, but that they had taken the cubs off her after birth in order to make them more attached to humans and to be friendlier with the tourists. I was starting to realise that this was not about the happiness of the tigers, but all about the tourists, pleasing us and taking our money.

"After the bottle feeding, all of the tourists including myself and my husband, were ushered out by Tiger Temple staff. My husband and I both walked a tiger, who had chains and leads on, down to an exercise area. Here we were both given 'cat toys' to tease the tigers with. Some had balloons on, which would pop and scare the tigers, others had noisy plastic buckets on sticks. Some of the younger, more playful tigers - the ones who had been taken from their mothers very early and handreared - seemed to like this, but the older tigers were wary of the sticks and shyed away from the Tiger Temple staff members and tourists.

"During both the feeding session and the exercise activity, we had our cameras taken off us by the staff, who took photographs for us. I would have liked to take my own photographs too, but I was not allowed to. The staff knew what it was ok to take photos of and what we were not allowed to document.

"Once the 'exercise session' was over, again we were ushered outside like we were on a conveyor belt. We were pushed by the staff towards one of the tigers in order to give him a bath. He was doused in water by the staff and smeared in shampoo, so we could rub him and pose for the camera with him all soapy. The shampoo didn't look like any type of special pet shampoo, just the normal human kind. After we had 10 or so photographs taken, we were ushered away and another couple of tourists took our place and washed him. Our tiger has his ears back for the whole shampooing session, and looked very unhappy, which as an animal lover was not pleasant to see. He was also chained to the wall on a very short lead.

"After the 20 or so tourists had all had a turn at shampooing a tiger, and had all posed for photographs, we were led down to a place called the Tiger Canyon, where 10 larger tigers were firstly chained up, and later made to perform tricks jumping into a small pool of water. We were all warned about the dangers of tigers, before being placed behind a flimsy metal barrier. The Tiger Temple Thai staff were on hand to keep the tigers away from us. They did this by banging the ground and shoving the tigers away with tools such as spades, pickaxes and long metal poles. One Thai temple staff member went to hit the ground in front of one of the tigers with his pickaxe, in order to keep him from coming too close to us, but the pickaxe hit the tiger in the paw instead, and the tiger made a small noise of pain and leapt away to lick his paw.

"After watching the way the tigers were treated - roughly, with no respect, and like they were pieces of meat there to make money - both my husband and I were quite upset by this point. Because we had paid our 4500 Baht each, we were entitled to come back to the Tiger Temple in the afternoon to have a 'special photograph' taken with one of the big tigers in the Canyon. I didn't want to come back, but by this point I had already decided I would write a report, or letter of complaint to someone, and so needed to experience the whole day.

"In the afternoon, the experience was much more upsetting. The morning sessions had about 20 other tourists there, many on trips organised by tour operators like our tour was, but in the afternoon, there were hundreds and hundreds of noisy tourists all wanting photographs. The crowd was told to line up, and then we took it in turns to be dragged around each of the temple tigers who were chained in the canyon, to have our photos taken with them.

"The tigers nearly all looked unconscious. We were told by Richard, an Australian man in charge of the non-Thai tourists, that the Tiger Temple tigers were very heavy sleepers, and that at this time of the afternoon they were always out cold.

"The tigers heads were picked up and dropped heavily into our laps for us to pose with, but the tiger I was with didn't make a sound or move a muscle, it's like he had no idea where he was, or what was happening to him. I've seen that before in my domestic pet cats, but only when they have been sedated by the vet and are unconcious. It made me wonder how, if the tigers sleep as heavily in the wild as they do in the Tiger Temple, the tiger species is not extinct yet! Everytime a tiger fell asleep in the wild, it would be able to be captured or killed without it moving a muscle. I don't believe a tiger can sleep so deeply without being sedated in some way.

"After we had our 'special' photographs taken, I wanted to leave the Tiger Temple as soon as possible. There were still hundreds of other tourists lining up to pay an extra 1000 Baht for their turn to pose with the tigers, but we had both seen enough.

"The way the tigers were treated at the temple throughout the day showed a huge lack of respect. The whole day was designed to please tourists, providing them with souvenir photographs, and little thought seemed to be put into the tigers e.g. how they were feeling, what would be good for them (like staying with their mothers until weaned for example, and not being hit with pickaxes!). Some of the tigers were very thin, others were grossly overweight, and at least one male tiger I saw, called Yak Yak, had very bad green diarrhea and did not look healthy at all.

"From a tourist point of view also, the experience was a great disappointment. As an animal lover, I expected to be allowed time with these beautiful animals, but we were herded round at great speed, stopping only for a minute here, and a minute there, just long enough for us to pose, before being pushed aside for the next paying tourist.

"That we actually paid to see tigers being mistreated and used only as a means of making money makes me very sad. I feel guilty that I have contributed to helping to fund the Tiger Temple by paying to be let inside. The only thing that has helped me to feel better is the hope that some other tourists will read this and it will put them off going to the Tiger Temple.

"From both my point of view as a tourist, and as an animal lover, I have never felt more cheated than on my day at the Tiger Temple. "