20 face charges for online wildlife trafficking
Print Edition
FORESTRY police in southwest China’s Yunnan Province have caught 20 people who were involved in online trafficking of wild animals including iguanas, chameleons and pythons.
The suspects will now face charges and penalties according to a newly revised law on wild animal protection that took effect on January 1, said Li Jun, a forestry police officer in Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Honghe.
The amended law bans hunting, sale, purchase, and use of state-protected wild animals or derived products, unless for scientific research, captive breeding, population regulation, monitoring of disease, or other legitimate purposes.
“That means anyone involved in illegal wild animal trade will face criminal penalties, whether you are a poacher, a dealer or just a pet owner,” said Li Jun.
In September 2016, forestry police in Yunnan caught an online animal dealer surnamed Gu in Honghe’s Hekou County and confiscated a number of wild animals.
The police had followed information revealed in Gu’s advertisements posted online, in which he claimed to have rare pets for sale, such as slow lorises and American green iguanas.
Following Gu’s arrest, police spent eight months hunting for his accomplices and, by early May, 19 of them were caught in Honghe, Chuxiong, Yuxi and the provincial capital Kunming.
“More than 90 wild animals were seized in the crackdown, including 52 exotic animals,” said Li Lili, a police officer in Gejiu City of Honghe. “This is the largest online wildlife trafficking case in Yunnan Province in the past decade.”
“The suspects often lined packages with newspapers to keep the animals warm during delivery, but still, some animals died on the way from hunger or suffocation,” said Li.
One parcel seized, on its way to the northern province of Shanxi, contained a ball python that had suffocated. Pythons are sold for 3,000 yuan (US$435) each.
Most of the buyers were young people while some were parents searching for secret remedies to cure their ailing children. Animals, such as lizards, are often used in traditional Chinese medicine.
“Captive breeding of wild animals is subject to approval by forestry authorities,” said Li. “If you want to keep a cool pet, you should get it in a legitimate way.”
The seized animals have been handed over to a wildlife refuge center in Kunming. While the exotic animals will be bred in captivity, indigenous species can be released if they are fit to survive in the wild and pose no harm to people or the ecosystem.
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