Frank Cuesta

Francisco Javier Cuesta Ramos (Leon, Spain, 16 October 1973), better known as Frank Cuesta, is a Spanish adventurer, television presenter and tennis coach, who has lived in Bangkok, Thailand for over 20 years. For the past 15 years Frank Cuesta has been fighting illegal animal trafficking and animal abuse in the southeast Asia. In 2012, after being infiltrated into Bear farms in Vietnam as a vet, he showed to the world, the dramatic images of how bears were abused daily, to get their bile for traditional alternative medicines and other curatives with no scientifically proven value. This report then pushed the Vietnamese Government to make an official statement where they promised to abort these activities.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Cuesta and the second or maternal family name is Ramos.
Links with the prefix "es:" are to articles in the Spanish language Wikipedia
Frank Cuesta
Frank paying respect to a king Cobra
Born
Francisco Javier Cuesta Ramos

(1973-10-16) 16 October 1973
León, Spain
Nationality Spain
Occupation
Spouse(s)Yuyee Alissa Intusmith (Divorced 2012)
ChildrenZipi (b. 2003, deceased)
Zape (b.2003)
Zorro (b.2005)
Zen (b.2010)
[1]
Personal details
ResidenceBangkok City, Thai Kingdom (for 20 nniums (20 years)

He presented his first TV Show es:Frank de la jungla which was broadcast on Cuatro from 2010 to 2013 . It received the Premio Ondas award on 8 November 2011 in the national TV category.[2] The show brought him international fame along with the spin-off shows called La Selva en Casa and Natural Frank. In March 2013, Cuesta signed a contract with Discovery International in order to make the TV show Wild Frank which has been broadcast in more than 100 countries.[3]

Biography

Frank Cuesta studied veterinary medicine at University. Frank was also interested in being a tennis player during his youth before he had a motorbike accident. Then he became a tennis coach instead, signing up in the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy in Florida. He moved to Thailand to build his own academy, the Frank Cuesta Tennis Academy.

Throughout these years, his interest in herpetology led him to found an association to help reptiles in Thailand.[4]

In 2010, the Spanish show Callejeros Viajeros's team met Frank Cuesta when they had some problems with a snake.[5] His skills and knowledge led him to present his own TV show, Frank de la Jungla.

It received the es:Premios Ondas award on 8 November 2011 in the national TV category.[2] The show brought him national fame along with the spin-off shows called La Selva en Casa and Natural Frank. In March 2013, Cuesta signed a contract with Discovery International in order to make the TV show Wild Frank which has been broadcast in more than 100 countries.[3]

He also received the award of "conservationist of the year" in 2016 by the Southeast Asia animal rights confederation; granted for his continuous fight against illegal animal trafficking.

In June 2014, his ex wife Yuyee Alissa Intusmith was arrested in the Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, with 5 milligrams of cocaine and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[6] Frank claimed that his ex wife was innocent and blamed Thai authorities for tampering with evidence. Cuesta also claimed that the court trail had irregularities.[6] The court ultimately rejected Yuyee's appeals that alleged that the authorities altered the report about the volume and presence of cocaine and that her blood and urine test (which purportedly tested negative for drug consumption) was suppressed.[7]

In 2016 his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/NATURALFRANK received the awards of most watched and best channel for natural conservation in Thailand.

Frank runs his own foundation since 2010, financed by the revenue of his TV show. It doesn't accept donations, charity or sponsors.

When asked in an interview why he kept fighting against illegal animal trafficking in spite of the troubles it had caused him, Cuesta answered "animals don't have lawyers", and explained his refusal of financial aid to his foundation as a personal preference, noting that the money his show makes is owed to the wild animals he films, and that it should be going back to them.

Frank Cuesta's foundation has released more than 5,000 animals back into the wild since 2002.

TV shows
gollark: Grammar is derived from actual use of English, not the other way round.
gollark: I think it would be considered an adverb.
gollark: Probably a USB, it can boot off that now.
gollark: The micro-SD card for my RPi mysteriously died on Tuesday, so now I have to replace it with something or other.
gollark: I see.

References
  1. "Frank, su familia y su forma de vida". Cuatro (in Spanish). Mediaset España. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  2. "Frank recibió el Ondas a la innovación televisiva por su programa "Frank de la Jungla"". Premio Ondas (in Spanish). 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  3. "Frank Cuesta y sus indirectas 'muy directas' a Discovery Max". Europa Press (in Spanish). Madrid. 22 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  4. Rellena, Maria José (19 August 2009). "Frank Cuesta: "El tenis es mi mujer y los reptiles, mis amantes"". Soitu (in Spanish). Micromedios Digitales S.L. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  5. Monegal, Ferran (23 October 2010). "Frank Cuesta, el pollastre de León". El Periódico (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  6. 20minutos (2017-03-15). "El Supremo de Tailandia rechaza la última apelación de Yuyee, la exmujer de 'Frank de la Jungla'". www.20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  7. 20minutos (2015-10-02). "Condenan en firme a 15 años de prisión a Yuyee, la exmujer de Frank Cuesta". www.20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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