World Society for the Protection of Animals team up with Met police in fight against wildlife crime

Fight against wildlife crime
January 2012. London's specialist wildlife police have been given a financial boost in their efforts to stamp out wildlife crime in the city - the first time a charity has directly funded a Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) unit. Thanks to the intervention from an animal welfare charity, the MPS Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU) will be gaining more staff as well as resources to train up the next generation of specialist enforcement officers as its current officers near retirement.

World Society for the Protection of Animals
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA UK) made the unusual move after witnessing a wave of UK-wide austerity cuts and watching Defra Minister Richard Benyon battle to save the National WCU in parliament. The London WCU was finding it increasingly difficult to effectively address wildlife crime in London - more officers and resources were needed, but it was clear that additional centralised funding would have been impossible in the current economic climate.

The charity's funding has safeguarded the future of the unit - allowing the current staff to pass on their extensive and valuable institutional knowledge - as well as allowing the unit to expand to better tackle wildlife crime.

Organised gangs
WSPA UK Head of External Affairs Simon Pope explained: "Without the specialist skills and knowledge of the WCU, wildlife crime in London could flourish. This is not some niche, illicit trade carried out by petty part-time villains. It is a major source of revenue for a global network of hardened criminals, gangs and drug lords; all growing rich from the trafficking of wildlife and none about to have a crisis of conscience and stop what they are doing."

Combined with WSPA's 30-plus years of international animal welfare work, global contacts and expertise, the partnership looks set to create a meaningful legacy.

Sergeant Ian Knox, Head of the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit said: "I am delighted that the World Society for the Protection of Animals has decided to contribute a significant amount of money to the Wildlife Crime Unit. The extra funding will pay for more staff so we can be more proactive in targeting criminals who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.

"We will also be able to provide additional support and training to Wildlife Crime Officers across London which will ensure that the Met has the capability to tackle crimes against animals in the future."

Simon added: "WSPA believes that the knowledge contained in the WCU is an irreplaceable asset to London, national and international enforcement communities. We know that our supporters and Londoners want to see wildlife criminals bought to justice, so it seemed vital now more than ever to safeguard the future of this specialist unit."

The partnership launch marks the first milestone in WSPA UK's new wildlife campaign, which will cover a wide range of issues from wildlife crime and illegal trade, to bear sanctuaries and marine welfare concerns.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wspa.html

Rescued Indian Star Tortoises sent home (Via HerpDigest)

Rescued Indian Star Tortoises sent home
Group urges authorities to monitor offenders closely

NewsStraitsTimes 12/27/10 MORE than 600 Indian Star Tortoises were sent home to India last week after the smuggled reptiles were rescued by the authorities a few months ago.

A total of 599 tortoises, stuffed into two luggage bags, were rescued in August after authorities noticed that no one claimed the bags at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

 A month later, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) confiscated another 100 tortoises in Malacca, and the owner was given a "very stern warning".

 All the tortoises were either infants or juveniles.



Perhilitan consultant Burhanuddin Mohd Nor said the repatriation of the tortoises last Thursday was the first this year.

 Despite the fact that the species cannot be imported into Malaysia and it is illegal to own one as a pet, the Indian Star Tortoises can be found in pet shops. 



Anyone found to be in possession of the species can be fined up to a maximum of RM100,000 per animal or imprisoned up to seven years, under the International Trade of Endangered Species Act 2008.



"We would like to advise those keeping the tortoises as pets to come forward and surrender them to us," Burhanuddin said.

 "We also hope that the public will inform us of pet shops that sell the species."



The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (Traffic) said the Malaysian government should monitor offenders closely as the trade seemed to be more visible now, although underground.

 Its senior programme officer, Kanitha Krishnasamy, said the rescue of the 699 reptiles showed that the trade was very active and a major threat to the tortoises, especially in Southeast Asia.

 "It is important that offenders are prosecuted and made to bear the cost of repatriating the animals as the process is not cheap."

 She added that Traffic appreciated that the Malaysian government worked with the Indian government to send the tortoises home, where they belonged and would be protected.



The Indian Star Tortoise, or Geochelone elegans, is found in scrub forests in India and Sri Lanka.

 The species is said to be quite popular in the exotic pet trade, although India has banned its export. 



The reptile was only recently added to the First Schedule of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

Bulgarian Roma Clan Member Gets Suspended Sentence over Tortoises (Via Herp Digest)

Bulgarian Roma Clan Member Gets Suspended Sentence over Tortoises
1/2/12, Sofia News Agency

The 33 tortoises seized from properties of notorious Roma clan leader Tsar Kiro have been placed at the Gea Chelonia Foundation Tortoise Centre in the vilage of Banya. Photo by BGNES

The court has approved a plea agreement between Sophia Hristova, daughter-in-law of the notorious Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov, and the prosecution, under which she will get a one year suspended sentence with three years of probation and a fine of BGN 5000 for illegally keeping 33 tortoises.

The 34-year-old woman pleaded guilty to charges of illegally keeping 33 tortoises in the period May 27, 2011 - November 16, 2011 in the Izgorqlata Vodentisa ("The Burnt Mill") locality on the territory of the southern Bulgarian village of Katunitsa.

3 of the 33 land-dwelling reptiles are spur-thighed tortoises, which are included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, while the other 30 are Hermann's tortoises, which are protected under Bulgaria's Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The plea agreement is final and takes effect immediately.

The tortoises have been seized by the state and have been taken to the the Gea Chelonia Foundation Tortoise Center located in the village of Banya.

The reptiles were found in early November, when Bulgarian police officers and archaeologists started inspecting Rashkov's properties in Katunitsa using metal detectors because they had been led to believe that his clan had buried vast amounts of gold there.

However, the authorities only discovered the tortoises instead.

Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, and his clan triggered massive tensions across Bulgaria in September after the murder of a teenager in Katunitsa.

On September 23, a van driven by associates of Rashkov ran down and killed 19-year-old ethnic Bulgarian Angel Petrov.

On November 22, another representative of the notorious Roma clan, Kiril Rashkov-Jr, the grandson of Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, was sentenced to 8 months of imprisonment for issuing a murder threat to Veselin Hristov.

Rashkov-Jr vowed to appeal the verdict.

Tsar Kiro has been placed at the Plovdiv Prison's dispensary and faces the same charges.

English man arrested in Bulgaria for egg collecting

RSPB officers help Bulgarian police in wildlife crime raid on English man's home in Burgas


December 2011. A tip-off to the RSPB has led to an international wildlife crime operation to raid the home of an Englishman in Bulgaria. A collection of eggs has been seized, including the egg of a griffon vulture which is a threatened species in Bulgaria.

Officers from the RSPB - and its Bulgarian partner BSPB - assisted Bulgarian police with the raid, which took place at an address in the coastal city of Burgas. The case - the first of its kind in Bulgaria - has involved information being passed from the RSPB to the Bulgarian authorities via the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).

Egg collection
Guy Shorrock is an RSPB investigations officer who has been involved with this case. Speaking from Burgas, he said: "We've been investigating this lead with keen interest. We're delighted that this international operation has led to the seizure of wild birds' eggs. In addition to the eggs, officers also seized egg-collecting equipment and climbing gear."

Five clutches of wild birds' eggs from four species were seized by the police, namely griffon vulture; collared pratincole (a scarce southern European wading bird); ortolan bunting and blackcap.

Guy Shorrock added: "It is disturbing that a collection of wild birds' eggs has been seized in Bulgaria which has so many threatened and vulnerable species. We are very concerned that countries like this may be vulnerable to egg collecting as they have no history of investigating these types of offences."

Bulgaria has a number of bird species which are facing global extinction, including: imperial eagle, saker falcon, Egyptian vulture, great bustard, white-headed duck and the Dalmatian pelican.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bulgaria-bird-eggs.html

Lizard Smuggler Gets 15 Months Behind Bars After Being Caught At LAX

Lizard Smuggler Gets 15 Months Behind Bars After Being Caught At LAX
(CNS) July 6, 2011

A Lomita man was sentenced today to 15 months behind bars for attempting to smuggle 15 live lizards from Australia through customs at Los Angeles International Airport by strapping the reptiles to his chest.

Michael J. Plank, 42, the owner and operator of a Lomita company dealing in reptiles, pleaded guilty a year ago in Los Angeles federal court to a charge of smuggling wildlife into the United States.

Plank said he was driven by love of the reptiles rather than the $23,500 he could have earned by selling the prohibited lizards to other collectors.

"Since the first lizard I caught as a child ... I've had an affection for these reptiles," Plank said, adding that his passion for the creatures "has led me to where I am."

Along with the prison term, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II ordered Plank to pay a $2,000 fine and serve three years under supervised release after he is released from federal custody.

"By doing what he's doing, he may very well be endangering the environment and these animals," Wright said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Plank was returning from Australia in November 2009 when U.S. Customs agents found two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks stuffed into a money belt he was wearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Mitchell said the skinks were pregnant and seven offspring have subsequently been born.

The confiscated reptiles are at the San Diego Zoo.

All Australian reptiles are strictly regulated, and Plank did not have a permit for the lizards.

In arguing for probation, defense attorney Larry M. Bakman said Plank suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder that led to the smuggling attempt and fueled his deeply rooted interest in the reptile trade.

"You have to understand how obsessive these people are ... they're in another category," Bakman said. "They are obsessive-compulsive addicts ... (some) have mortgaged their homes to get in on a project involving albino boas."

Wright rejected the argument for a sentence of home detention, saying he would not allow the defendant to "stay home for a while and watch Oprah."

Wright said Plank made a dozen trips to Australia over three years, ostensibly to "capture these things in the wild' and smuggle the reptiles into the United States.

During an interview with investigators, Plank admitted smuggling lizards twice before using the money belt, according to court papers.

Rhinoceros head stolen from Brussels museum

A stuffed rhinoceros head was stolen from the Brussels Natural History Museum, the second such robbery in Belgium in less than a month.

"At closing time, the head of a black 'Diceros bicornis' rhinoceros exhibited in the mammals gallery was stolen by three people," the museum said in a statement issued after the Tuesday heist. The rhino robbers fled to a waiting car with a driver, with museum guards in hot pursuit. "They got away before we could catch then," the museum added.

Read on...

CSI: Wildlife -- Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths

CSI: Wildlife -- Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
from Miller-McCune

Carol Meteyer unfurled the Sandhill crane's gray wings across the steel examination table, and for a moment, the 4-foot-tall bird regained its former majesty. In that instant, the laboratory's windowless cinderblock walls, cement floor and fluorescent lights disappeared. It was easy to imagine the crane's wings cupping the prairie air as it landed in an Oklahoma field, its long gray neck stretched, its red crown the only bright spot in a dun landscape.

FedEx had delivered the crane, along with three others, that morning. The day before, it had stood in a farm field in Oklahoma, its head bowed and its wings limp; 10 other cranes were already dead or showing similar symptoms.

Dead animals arrive at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., almost every day, usually by overnight delivery in plastic coolers. State and federal wildlife biologists from all over the country send carcasses to the lab hoping to solve cases of mysterious animal deaths, to confirm their own diagnoses or to provide evidence in legal cases against an animal's killer. Because it does solve animal murder mysteries through scientific investigation, the center has been called wildlife's own CSI unit. It would be just as accurate, though, to call it a wildlife Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also solves deadly mysteries, but the emphasis there, as at the wildlife health center, is on research, outreach and prevention of needless death.

http://ow.ly/5mJYs

PETA Calls for Gov't Investigation Into Apparently Illegal Monkey Import Permit

Group Joins Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly in an Outcry Against Permit Granted to Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc. 

For Immediate Release:May 31, 2011
Contact:Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382

San Juan, Puerto Rico — Today, PETA fired off an urgent letter to the Puerto Rico Department of Justice calling for a full investigation into an apparently illegal monkey import and export permit granted by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DRNA) to Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc.—even though it would be illegal for Bioculture to operate in the city where the company is being built. PETA's complaint follows a similar request from Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly, who states that the DRNA has no legal authority to grant Bioculture a permit to import animals and that the agency has ignored Bioculture's blatant and repeated violations of laws and regulations.

"The DRNA's full embrace of Bioculture is as troubling as it is meaningless," says PETA's Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "No permit could allow Bioculture to follow through with its plans—to tear monkeys away from their homes in the wild, breed them, and sell their babies for use in experiments—because all these shameful acts are illegal in Guayama."

Bioculture hopes to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from Mauritius, confine them to cages at the company's planned Guayama facility, and sell their offspring to U.S. and foreign laboratories for use in painful and deadly experiments. But last year, the Guayama government unanimously adopted municipal ordinances No. 9 and 11, Series 2010–2011, which explicitly ban the import, export, breeding, and use of monkeys in experiments within its territorial boundaries.

In addition, in November 2009, the Puerto Rico Senate Environmental Committee found that Bioculture's facility was improperly built on land that was not zoned for the business's purposes. PETA's challenge of the permit stopped construction. In March 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined Bioculture thousands of dollars for violating the federal Clean Water Act. In October 2010, the Puerto Rico Senate approved R.S. 1514 to "[e]xpress the most forceful objection" to Bioculture's plans and to request that the U.S. government deny "any and all permit request by Bioculture Mauritius … with the purpose of importing Macaca fascicularis into Puerto Rico."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

Man pleads guilty to taking protected species from N.C. refuge (Via Herp Digest)

Man pleads guilty to taking protected species from N.C. refuge
By Lauren King, The Virginian-Pilot
February 28, 2011, NEW BERN, N.C.

A 60-year-old Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the taking of a protected species from the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.

Kenneth Dobis of Woodlyn, Pa., also pleaded guilty to trespassing on a wildlife refuge. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000 in federal court, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

On May 21, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge officers observed Dobis and his son, Keith, carrying pillowcases and snake sticks along a roadside adjacent to the wildlife refuge, the news release said. The officers, with help from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, conducted surveillance on the two for the next few hours in and around the Mattamuskeet and Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuges.
The next morning, officers continued their surveillance of the pair at their hotel and saw Keith Dobis leave his hotel room carrying what appeared to be a snake in a pillowcase. Dobis placed the pillowcase inside the trunk of a vehicle, and the two men left the hotel together in the vehicle.

The officers stopped their vehicle and received consent to search the vehicle. They found a quantity of marijuana and an Eastern Pigmy Rattlesnake, a protected species under North Carolina law, the news release said. Officers also found two copperhead snakes, a rat snake, two worm snakes, three turtles, 11 frogs, a skink and equipment used to collect reptiles and amphibians.

Crackdown on hare coursing in Welwyn Hatfield

BARBARIC bloodsport hare coursing has been dealt a blow this year thanks to better training and cooperation between police forces.


With the hare coursing ‘season’ about a third of the way through, Hertfordshire Constabulary’s wildlife crime officer Sgt Jamie Bartlett has hailed the decline in the practice in Welwyn Hatfield, which was a threat to the once-common and-now-threatened brown hare.


He said officers had learned from experienced colleagues in Cambridgeshire, which is the UK’s hare coursing hub, thanks largely to the county’s wide open flat expanses.

The combined effort to tackle the menace also involves other forces including Essex and Bedfordshire.

Sgt Bartlett said last year saw an increase in cases in and around Welwyn Hatfield because illegal gamblers who bet on the bloody outcome of the ‘sport’ had been driven out of their usual haunts by concerted police efforts.

But this year, despite “a few glitches around Ayot St Lawrence”, officers were halting the spread of the bloodsport and incidents were “significantly lower”.

Sgt Bartlett put the breakthrough down to training sessions in wildlife crime at police HQ in Stanborough Road, WGC.

He told the WHT: “We’ve had instances in Ayot St Lawrence and more rural areas around Hatfield.

“It used to be mainly in north and east Herts because the flat geography lends itself to dogs chasing hares, but because of operations in those areas, hare coursers have moved to more central areas in smaller fields.

“They gamble on which dog will turn the hare and which one will catch and kill the hare.”

He added: “They’ve come to places like WGC, Hatfield and Potters Bar where we have fields where the brown hare is present.”

Hare coursing was outlawed in 2004 and it is a criminal offence even to attend an event.

And Sgt Bartlett said hare coursing was often linked to other crimes like trespassing, intimidation and threats to landowners and damage to crops.

He said that hare courses often spot where valuables such as diesel and quad bikes are stored and return later to steal them, and urged the public to report wildlife offences “like any other crime”.

Report by Paul Christian, Reporter

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/crackdown_on_hare_coursing_in_welwyn_hatfield_1_745490

Crackdown on hare coursing in Welwyn Hatfield

BARBARIC bloodsport hare coursing has been dealt a blow this year thanks to better training and cooperation between police forces.


With the hare coursing ‘season’ about a third of the way through, Hertfordshire Constabulary’s wildlife crime officer Sgt Jamie Bartlett has hailed the decline in the practice in Welwyn Hatfield, which was a threat to the once-common and-now-threatened brown hare.


He said officers had learned from experienced colleagues in Cambridgeshire, which is the UK’s hare coursing hub, thanks largely to the county’s wide open flat expanses.

The combined effort to tackle the menace also involves other forces including Essex and Bedfordshire.

Sgt Bartlett said last year saw an increase in cases in and around Welwyn Hatfield because illegal gamblers who bet on the bloody outcome of the ‘sport’ had been driven out of their usual haunts by concerted police efforts.

But this year, despite “a few glitches around Ayot St Lawrence”, officers were halting the spread of the bloodsport and incidents were “significantly lower”.

Sgt Bartlett put the breakthrough down to training sessions in wildlife crime at police HQ in Stanborough Road, WGC.

He told the WHT: “We’ve had instances in Ayot St Lawrence and more rural areas around Hatfield.

“It used to be mainly in north and east Herts because the flat geography lends itself to dogs chasing hares, but because of operations in those areas, hare coursers have moved to more central areas in smaller fields.

“They gamble on which dog will turn the hare and which one will catch and kill the hare.”

He added: “They’ve come to places like WGC, Hatfield and Potters Bar where we have fields where the brown hare is present.”

Hare coursing was outlawed in 2004 and it is a criminal offence even to attend an event.

And Sgt Bartlett said hare coursing was often linked to other crimes like trespassing, intimidation and threats to landowners and damage to crops.

He said that hare courses often spot where valuables such as diesel and quad bikes are stored and return later to steal them, and urged the public to report wildlife offences “like any other crime”.

Report by Paul Christian, Reporter

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/crackdown_on_hare_coursing_in_welwyn_hatfield_1_745490

Endangered Tiger Found In Man's Freezer

11:14am UK, Monday June 14, 2010
Julia Reid, Sky News Online

A tiger, several turtles, a monkey and the remains of a chimpanzee have been discovered in a household freezer.

Police found the dead animals in a raid on a suburban house in Coventry and have arrested a 52-year-old man.

Alan Dudley has been charged with 10 offences relating to illegal trade in endangered animals.

West Midlands Police and Custom and Excise investigators also uncovered the skulls of a baby seal and penguin alongside lemurs, sparrowhawks, buzzards and owls during the raid.

Some of the animals had allegedly been bought on the internet auction site eBay.

Tigers are among the most endangered animals in the world and are a common target for poachers.

Their skins are used for rugs and wall hangings, while their bones, whiskers, and eyeballs are used in traditional Asian medicines.

They can grow up to 11ft long and can weigh up to 47 stone.

The loggerhead turtles found by police are also facing extinction due to loss of habitat and pollution.

Mr Dudley faces one count of purchasing specimens, two of offering a prohibited specimen for sale, two of offering to buy a prohibited specimen, one of keeping prohibited specimens for sale, and four further charges under Customs and Excise breaches.

He will appear at Coventry Crown Court in July.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Tiger-Found-In-Freezer-Police-Raid-In-Coventry-Uncovers-Dead-Animals---Alan-Dudley-Charged/Article/201006215648807

Rare geckos returned home

Added: 7:25PM Friday March 19, 2010
Source: ONE News

Sixteen rare jewelled geckos at the centre of a foiled smuggling bid are now back where they belong.

See video here: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/rare-geckos-returned-home-1-42-video-3423523
(Submitted by Tony Lucas)

India arrests after sea cucumbers seized at Delhi hotel

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

A court in India has bailed two people after highly endangered sea cucumbers were seized at a restaurant in a five-star hotel in the capital, Delhi.

The restaurant manager of the hotel, which was not named, and the supply company owner were arrested last month.

A government statement said the sea cucumbers were found during a raid on the hotel restaurant last August.

Trading in sea cucumbers is illegal and carries stiff penalties under Indian wildlife protection laws.

"After receiving information, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) officials searched the restaurant and seized sea cucumbers from the kitchen of the hotel," the ministry of environment and forests said in a press release.

"On further interrogation, the shop of the supplier was also searched by the WCCB officials."

Samples were sent to the Zoological Survey of India for analysis and "the sea cucumbers were identified as Actinopyga milliaris", the statement said.

Many species of sea cucumbers are found in India. They have the same level of protection as the tiger.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8557621.stm

Boost ivory trade monitoring and enforcement before allowing one-off sales: UBC researcher

11-Mar-2010

Recent petitions from several African nations to 'downlist' the conservation status of elephants should be denied because no adequate monitoring of the impact of ivory sales or enforcement of the ivory trade exists, according to recommendations published today by an international group of researchers including UBC zoologist Rene Beyers.

In 2008, a one-off sale of stockpiled ivory from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe was brokered by the European Union in exchange for a nine-year moratorium on future sales from those nations. Tanzania and Zambia are currently petitioning the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to downlist the conservation status of their elephants, which would enable the two nations to sell existing stockpiles generated by the legal culling of herds.

"The immediate fear is that down-listing elephants or allowing one-off sales in any African nation will stimulate the market for illegal ivory everywhere, particularly in those countries where law enforcement is inadequate," says Beyers, a post doctoral fellow with the department of Zoology.

"We've seen a huge increase in poaching in Central Africa in recent years. In large areas, including many national parks, elephants have become scarce or disappeared altogether. We're concerned that as elephant populations become depleted in one region, poaching will spread to areas where populations are still healthy."

The recommendations were published today in the journal Science. Spearheaded by Samuel Wasser at the University of Washington, the paper includes researchers from the United States, Norway, Kenya, Cameroon, the United Kingdom, Tanzania and Canada.

"None of the countries involved in this petition are adequately controlling their country's illegal ivory trade," says Wasser, lead author of the paper and director of the the University of Washington's Centre for Conservation Biology. "Allowing these sales to occur sets the wrong precedent at the risk of irreparable harm to Africa's ecosystems."

The 2008 sale was in part contingent on strengthening the systems that track poaching and seizures of illegal ivory across the continent.

"A program was put in place to monitor the impact of legal ivory sales on the illegal killing of elephants, but hasn't yet been able to do so, due to major logistical and scientific challenges and a lack of adequate funding," says Beyers. "But recent analysis of elephant deaths attributed to illegal killing has demonstrated an increase in poached elephants in several countries in Central Africa, but also in Zambia and parts of Tanzania."

Also noted by the paper's authors is DNA-based research that indicates that Tanzania and Zambia, the two countries petitioning to downlist their elephants, are among the most significant sources of, and conduits for, illegal ivory in Africa.

The authors estimate proceeds from the sale of stockpiles of ivory held by Tanzania and Zambia would total less that $20 million--approximately one per cent of those nations' tourism revenue. China and Japan are among the largest importers of illegal ivory.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/uobc-bit031110.php

Man jailed for eating rare tiger

Wednesday December 23, 06:46 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) - A man who killed and ate what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China was sentenced to 12 years in jail, local media reported on Tuesday.

Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, met the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China's border with Laos. He claimed to have killed it in self-defense.

The only known wild Indochinese tiger in China, photographed in 2007 at the same reserve, has not been seen since Kang's meal, the Yunnan-based newspaper Life News reported earlier this month.

The paper quoted the provincial Forestry Bureau as saying there was no evidence the tiger was the last one in China.

A local court sentenced Kang to 10 years for killing a rare animal plus two years for illegal possession of firearms, the local web portal Yunnan.cn reported. Prosecutors said Kang did not need a gun to gather clams.

Four villagers who helped Kang dismember the tiger and ate its meat were also sentenced from three to four years for "covering up and concealing criminal gains," the report said.

Kang was also fined 480,000 yuan ($70,000).

The Indochinese tiger is on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 left in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.

http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/091222/5/gcwp.html

Exotic pets seized from high-rise

MALAYSIA: A woman was arrested after authorities found a baby honey bear, a leopard cat - a type of small wild feline - and a slow loris primate in her appartment.

Officials acting on a tip discovered the endangered species at the 25-year-old woman's appartment in a Kuala Lumpur city high-rise. The animals, worth hundreds of euros on the black market, were kept as pets, and the cage for the slow loris - a lemur-like animal - had swings to keep it amused.

The animals are thought to have been bought from indigenous tribes, and the woman said her male cousin owned them. Officials want to send the animals to a zoo or release them back into the wild.

Metro Ireland, 8 December 2009, p8.

Exotic pets seized from high-rise

MALAYSIA: A woman was arrested after authorities found a baby honey bear, a leopard cat - a type of small wild feline - and a slow loris primate in her appartment.

Officials acting on a tip discovered the endangered species at the 25-year-old woman's appartment in a Kuala Lumpur city high-rise. The animals, worth hundreds of euros on the black market, were kept as pets, and the cage for the slow loris - a lemur-like animal - had swings to keep it amused.

The animals are thought to have been bought from indigenous tribes, and the woman said her male cousin owned them. Officials want to send the animals to a zoo or release them back into the wild.

Metro Ireland, 8 December 2009, p8.

Thousands of eggs seized in raid

A man has been charged with wildlife crime offences after police seized more than 5,000 eggs during a raid on a home in West Lothian.

Equipment used by egg collectors was also taken from the property in Torphichen, near Bathgate.

A 57-year-old man has been reported to the procurator fiscal.

It is feared that some of the eggs could be from rare species such as the golden eagle, red kite, osprey and peregrine falcon.

Lothian and Borders Police, Tayside Police and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) worked on the case.

They have not identified the species of eggs included in the collection.

However, it is believed that it will represent a "vast spectrum" of UK species.

A spokesman for the RSPB said it was battling to "subject egg collectors to the full force of the law".

Egg collecting belongs in the past and there has been good progress in consigning it to that era
RSPB spokesman

He said: "The evidence that has been gathered is being sifted through to establish the full facts and, with a collection of this size, that will take some time.

"The police are now progressing this as a criminal investigation.

"First and foremost this type of activity is illegal and for a good reason, as it impacts on the ability of breeding birds to maintain their population levels.

"Egg collecting belongs in the past and there has been good progress in consigning it to that era.
"However, there are a hardcore of people who exist that are continuing the practice.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "A house in Torphichen was searched and over 5,000 eggs and egg collecting paraphernalia was seized.

"A 57-year-old man has been reported to the procurator fiscal."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8118728.stm

IS THAT A BIRD IN YOUR PANTS OR ARE YOU JUST PLEASED TO SEE ME?

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Prosecutors say a traveler tried smuggling songbirds into the United States by strapping more than a dozen birds to his legs and trying to walk out of Los Angeles International Airport.

Sony Dong and another man were charged Tuesday with conspiracy in an eight-count federal indictment. Messages left with their public defenders weren't immediately returned.

The U.S. attorney's office says Dong was held over for inspection at the airport when he returned from Vietnam earlier this month. Prosecutors say he had bird feathers and droppings on his socks, and birds' tail feathers peeking out from under his pants.

Three red-whiskered bul-buls, four magpie robins and six shama thrush were among the birds that are now in quarantine. More birds were found in a Southern California home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_fe_st/us_smuggled_songbirds