Education can end Asia wildlife trade, says expert

Friday, June 10, 2011
Luke Hunt
Radio Australia News

Stuffed into four suitcases at Bangkok international airport last week were 450 rare and endangered turtles - and they were immediately seized by officials.

But the discovery highlights growing concern over animal poaching in Asia.

A previous find at the same airport included four leopard cubs, a bear cub, a monkey and a red-cheeked gibbon.

In a separate case, a Bengal tiger cub was seized. Further arrests have been made across the border, where Laos and Cambodia have struck deals with Vietnam in an effort to curb poaching and protect what is left of their wildlife.

At Phnom Tamao, a Zoo of Rescued Wild Things

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07 October 2009

Cambodia’s Phnom Tamao zoo, with 1,200 animals and around 80 species, is a rare facility, populated mostly by animals indigenous to the country, many of them confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade.

Nick Marx, an animal husbandry specialist for Wildlife Alliance in Phnom Penh, is director of the group’s wildlife rescue program at the zoo. In a recent interview with VOA Khmer in Washington, where he visited in September, Marx discussed some of the zoo’s characteristics.

“There are a lot wild animals there, more than before,” he said. “We are helping the forest conservative administration to make cages for the animals. Phnom Tamao is under the supervision of Cambodian forest conservative, and we help them there.”

In the US, Marx visited Washington, New York, Denver, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“There are a lot of Cambodian wildlife [specimens] in Phnom Tamao, because the Cambodians confiscated those animals from being traded, then they freed them at Phnom Tamao zoo,” he said. “Phnom Tamao zoo is different from the zoos in some other countries, as Phnom Tamao doesn’t import any animals from the other countries, except the Cambodian wild animals.”

Four veterinarians take care of the animals, he said, many of which are protected.

“In Cambodia now, killing, trapping and catching wild animals is illegal,” he said. “The Cambodian government now strongly protects wild animals. They don’t allow the hunters to kill animals anymore.”

Asian, US police meet on tackling wildlife crime

Monday, January 12, 2009
AFP

Police investigators from Southeast Asia, China and the United States met in Bangkok Wednesday to share strategies for tackling the illegal international trade in tigers, leopards and pangolins. Big cats prized for their skin and body parts and pangolins, or scaly anteaters, which are used in cooking, are under particular threat from organised trafficking gangs in Asia. Investigators from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam joined representatives from China and the United States for a three-day workshop on curbing the crime. “Concerted and coordinated joint actions are required to address the illegal exploitation and trade,” said Chumphon Suckasaem, a senior officer with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Wildlife Enforcement Network. Chumphon said the trade had already taken its toll, “threatening to irrevocably damage Southeast Asia’s ecosystems.”

Thai police intercept monkeys bound to Cambodian restaurants

SA KAEO, Sept 4 (TNA) - Thai Highway Police in Sa Kaeo province have rescued 24 baby crab-eating monkeys, arresting a Thai driver and five undocumented Cambodians attempting to smuggle the endangered species to Cambodia, where they were destined for cooking pots in Chinese restaurants.

Sa Kaeo Highway Police Thursday were suspicious of a pick-up truck at a check point along the Sa Kaeo-Bangkok road, as it was being driven at high-speed.

Stopping the truck for a search, police found the 24 baby monkeys, each separated in a net bag, and seized equipment used for catching monkeys, including nets, traps and nylon bags.

After questioning, the police said the suspects were all monkey traders in Prachinburi, who had been illegally delivering the animals to Chinese specialty restaurants in Cambodia.

They received Bt100 per monkey, the police said, adding that the gang carried out the illegal trade for many years.

All six men were charged with smuggling endangered wildlife, while the five Cambodians were also charged with illegal entry.

The crab-eating monkey is found in a wide variety of habitats, including rainforests and coastal mangrove forests.

The little creatures have short arms and legs, dark noses,and black fur which turns yellow green, grey-green or reddish-brown shades as they mature. They are distinguished by blue abdominal skin.

The crab-eating monkey or long-tailed macaques are among the most commonly used laboratory animal, second only to the rhesus monkey. They were used extensively in studies leading to the development of the polio vaccine.

Monkey business

Good till the last drop: A monkey enjoying a discarded canned drink.

Tuesday September 11, 2007
By HILARY CHIEW
The Star (Malaysia)

"Long-tailed macaques are being massively traded in China and most of the creatures originate from Cambodia and Vietnam."

Animal rights groups object to the trade in longtailed macaques for fear that a cruel fate awaits the monkeys in testing facilities.

IN 1984, the government banned the export of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) amidst international outcry against the abuse of the monkeys in bio-medical and military laboratories in the United States.

An international syndicate was capturing and smuggling the monkeys primarily for US scientific testing needs. More than 300,000 long-tailed macaques from Peninsular Malaysia were exported over 25 years from 1959, until the ban was instituted.

Now, it looks like the safeguard for the protected species has been overturned. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid announced on Aug 17 that the Cabinet had, on June 27, decided to allow the export of long-tailed macaques captured from urban areas.

Azmi cited macaque attacks on humans and the failure of relocation and sterilisation programmes as reasons for lifting the trade ban on macaques in urban areas. He ruled out culling because “it is cruel to shoot them”.

He said the public must not get emotional over the issue and challenged animal rights groups to come up with suggestions to the long-standing human-macaque conflict.

The SPCA Selangor, Malaysian Animal Assisted Therapy for Disabled Association, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership have grouped under an umbrella body called the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society (Roar), and submitted a memorandum to the minister demanding the reinstatement of the ban and a halt on all pending macaque shipments. They also lodged a police report against Azmi and ministry officials for violating Section 92(f) of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972.

Referring to the insufferable fate that macaques undergo at animal-testing facilities overseas, they said ministry officials were themselves committing cruelty against wildlife. Roar conceded that if there was a serious macaque over-population problem, sterilisation and humane culling were better options.

Malaysians got a foretaste of the sickly nature of the trade when over 1,000 longtailed macaques bound for export were uncovered in a horrifying state in an orchard in Pontian, Johor, early July.

About 100 rotting carcasses were found by wildlife officers. Three locals and an Indonesian were arrested, and Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) is still investigating the case. Surviving animals were released into jungles.

Biological warfare

The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) has long documented the cruelty in the use of non-human primates in scientific experiments. It found wasteful experimentation, incompetence and neglect of monkeys used for tests between 1979 and 1981, in the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

IPPL’s campaigns have led to halts in macaque trade in several countries. IPPL chairperson Dr Shirley McGreal said the Malaysian ban was preceded by Thailand in 1975, India in 1977 and Bangladesh in 1979.

Recently, IPPL was alerted to the renewed use of non-human primates for tests, this time in Chinese laboratories. Long-tailed macaques are being massively traded in China and most of the creatures originate from Cambodia and Vietnam.

US Fish and Wildlife Services statistics reveal that 26,638 primates were imported last year, a 44% increase over the 2004 figures of 18,534. Topping the list were long-tailed macaques (24,480).

“The trade escalated in 2006 when 2,532 monkeys, purportedly bred in Cambodia, reached the US. ‘IPPL has received reports on alleged unsatisfactory conditions at these facilities and suspicions that wild-caught monkeys are being exported on fake ‘captive-born’ documents,” said McGreal.

There is concern that the present trade is to facilitate bio-weapon experiments. Fresh funding for Fort Detrick is being channelled towards the use of non-human primates for exposure to the Ebola virus, ricin, anthrax and radio-frequency radiation, among others.

Being physiologically closest to humans, primates are ideal candidates for vaccine efficacy studies.

McGreal said Malaysians needed to know that indigenous monkeys from the country were likely to be sold to these labs.

“They will suffer horribly during the laboratory experiment. There is no way of conducting research humanely when dealing with biological warfare agents.”

As long-tailed macaque is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), Perhilitan has produced a non-detrimental finding (NDF) to show that the trade will not have a deleterious effect on the species’ survival.

According to the NDF, there are 258,406 macaques in urban areas and 483,747 at forest fringes.

Many people are suspicious of the exact numbers of the tally, which quite impossible to determine in the wildlife inventory. Population estimates normally appear as a range.

Some questioned the motive behind the NDF exercise because Malaysia has not produced any NDF for all the Appendix II species that it trades in, such as the monitor lizard and reticulated python. A wildlife trade observer said the NDF appears to be an exercise to facilitate the issuance of Cites export permits. He expects the findings to be challenged by the scientific and conservation communities.

It is learnt that the study was conducted between March and June. To get rid of the 179,120 monkeys purportedly found in high conflict zone in urban centres, a removal rate ranging from 20% to 90% over five years was suggested. A 90% extraction will see only 31 monkeys left in urban areas by the end of the plan.

Monkeys business in Cambodia: The robbers steal from the monkeys smugglers

Masked gunmen steal 52 monkeys in Cambodian heist

Wed, 22 Aug 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Masked gunmen made off with 52 macaque monkeys in a daring heist on a Cambodian facility where the primates were being held, police said Wednesday. Pen Kheng, the deputy police chief of Kampong Svay district in northern Kampong Thom province, said by telephone that the group of five or six masked men burst into the grounds of the Angkor Bright company last Sunday night and made off with the monkeys after threatening a guard.

"This is becoming very common in this district and has happened to Angkor Bright and another company, Chen China group, many times lately. This time we acted after receiving a complaint from Angkor Bright, but so far we have no suspects," Kheng said.

He declined to say why the company had so many monkeys on its premises, but wildlife officials have previously said they suspect Cambodia is becoming a transit point for primates destined for China and Vietnam, where animal testing is legal, monkey meat is a delicacy and animal rights protesters are virtually unheard of.

One monkey can sell for up to 20 dollars on the Cambodian market, and may fetch considerably more if they are smuggled across the borders, creating a profitable black market in the trade.

Some species of the animal such as long-tailed macaques are listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) and the Environment Ministry restricts how many permits it issues for capture and trade in the animals.

Pheng said it was not immediately clear what species of macaque was stolen from Angkor Bright, nor how the thieves managed to subdue and transport their unusual captives.

2 Cambodian Men Charged With Trafficking Tortoises

2007-08-18
AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: 2 Cambodian soldiers face up to 10 years in jail each if convicted for allegedly trafficking more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of tortoises, a court officer said Friday (Aug 17th).

The two men are being detained after they were formally charged with illegal transportation of the animals Thursday (Aug 16th), said Pen Sarath, a provincial court prosecutor.

He identified the men as Phi Sakada, 31, and Thorn Vannak, 28.

Pen Sarath said the two men had told him that the tortoises were smuggled from Thailand.

The two men were transporting 51 tortoises - each weighed between 5 kilograms to 15 kilograms - in a car from a northwestern province to the capital Phnom Penh, said Nhep Dam, a military police officer in Pursat province, where the pair were arrested Tuesday (Aug 14th).

He said it was not clear what the tortoises were intended for. The two men have told investigators they had been hired by another man to transport the animals from Banteay Meanchey, near the Thai border, to Phnom Penh, Nhep Dam said.

The tortoises were released into the wild Thursday, officials said.

The two men would remain under detention at Pursat provincial prison for up to six months pending further investigation and subsequent trial, the prosecutor said.

Pursat province is about 165 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh.

'Noah's Ark' of 5,000 Rare Animals Found Floating Off the Coast of China

A wild pangolin. Thousands of pangolins are being illegally shipped from Southeast Asia to China every month, police warned, as a meeting to crack down on wildlife smuggling started in earnest Tuesday in Indonesia (AFP/File/Jimin Lai)

Saturday May 26, 2007
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
The Guardian (UK)

• Cargo of abandoned vessel destined for restaurants
• Illegal trade drives species closer to extinction

Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5,000 of the world's rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China.

The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong. Most were alive, though the cargo also contained 21 bear paws wrapped in newspaper.

According to conservation groups, the haul was discovered on one of the world's most lucrative and destructive smuggling routes: from the threatened jungles of south-east Asia to the restaurant tables of southern China.

The animals were found when local fishermen noticed a strange smell emanating from the vessel, which did not have any registration plates, on Tuesday, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

When coastguard officials boarded the 25-meter craft, it was reportedly deserted and stripped of identification papers. They found more than 200 crates full of animals, many so dehydrated in the tropical sun that they were close to death.

The animals - which weighed 13 tonnes - were taken to port, doused with water and sent to an animal welfare center. "We have received some animals," said an office worker at the Guangdong Wild Animal Protection Center. "We are waiting to hear from the authorities what we should do with them."

According to the local media, the cargo included 31 pangolins, 44 leatherback turtles, 2,720 monitor lizards, 1,130 Brazilian turtles as well as the bear paws. Photographs showed other animals, including an Asian giant turtle.

All of these south-east Asian species are critically endangered, banned from international trade and yet openly sold in restaurants and markets in China's southern province of Guangdong, which is famous for its exotic cuisine.

The accidental discovery highlights the negative impact that the growing power of Chinese consumption is having on global conservation efforts.

According to wildlife groups, China is the main market for illegally traded exotic species, which are eaten or used in traditional medicine. Pangolins are in great demand because their meat is consider a delicacy and their scales are thought to help mothers breastfeed their babies.

As a result of demand, the pangolin populations of China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have been wiped out. With traders moving further and further south, the animal is declining even in its last habitats in Java, Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula. It is a similar story for many species of turtle, tortoise, frog and snake.

Despite China's international commitments to get to grips with this illicit activity, the trade is booming. Border controls are lax, and smugglers know that fines are usually far lower than the potential rewards. As a result, raids and seizures of banned products occur regularly. One recent raid on a restaurant in Guanghzou turned up 118 pangolins, 60kg of snakes and 400kg of toads.

Traffic - an organization that monitors and tries to prevent the smuggling of endangered species - welcomed the fact that China's authorities had reacted swiftly to rescue the animals but said much more needs to be done to prevent similar cases.

"Unfortunately, this is all too common. This trade is a far bigger threat to these species than habitat destruction," said Chris Shepherd, senior program officer with Traffic Southeast Asia. "The vigilance on the border has to be improved, cooperation with source countries needs to be strengthened, there should be better monitoring of dealers, and the people violating the laws must be penalized severely."

Despite the ban on pangolins, many restaurants offer their meat. The Chaoxing restaurant in Shenzhen said yesterday that pangolin was available but was only suitable for large dining parties.

"The animal is very big - about 10kg," said a waitress contacted by telephone. "We serve it in hotpot. That is the tastiest way."

According to recent reports in the Chinese media, the price of 1kg of pangolin served in Guangdong or Yunnan is between 600 and 800 yuan per kilogram (between £43 and £50).

A Guangdong chef interviewed last year in the Beijing Science and Technology Daily described how to cook a pangolin.

"We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death. We then boil them to remove the scales. We cut the meat into small pieces and use it to make a number of dishes, including braised meat and soup. Usually the customers take the blood home with them afterwards."