if im not wrong fire belly salamander is still legal in singapore . last time opps parkway parade shopping centre theres a shophouse aquarium shop call sam yick aquarium are selling tons of exotic pets
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Exotic Pets
- Thread starter karmabear
- Start date
if im not wrong fire belly salamander is still legal in singapore . last time opps parkway parade shopping centre theres a shophouse aquarium shop call sam yick aquarium are selling tons of exotic pets
if im not wrong fire belly salamander is still legal in singapore . last time opps parkway parade shopping centre theres a shophouse aquarium shop call sam yick aquarium are selling tons of exotic pets
knn drifter!!! so many civil servants looking for u in this forum??? u better be careful!!!
whahahaha...i know
in my real life i have been in this cat and mouse game for years so not to worry about me ..thankyou . most of the newbie ( who wanted to get exotic pets ) join date is on july2012 ...very fishy might be the same guy from civil serpent
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Lizard King, Anson Wong, Malaysia and illegal wildlife trade
Posted on 24 September 2008 by katrin under News
The New Straits Times: An American-penned hardcover details how Malaysian Anson Wong, dubbed 'the most important person in the international reptile business', was nabbed in Mexico and also his alleged links with Malaysian officials, writes lizabeth John. It's a story of crime, wildlife smuggling and money. It stars flamboyant characters dripping with gold chains, driving luxury vehicles and politicians -- the smugglers who are as slippery as the rare reptiles they traffic across the globe for sums of money that beggar belief.
But what is so fascinating about The Lizard King or relevant here is the capture of one Malaysian reptile smuggler and his vast reach and influence.
Key agencies linked to the smuggler are the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.
Perhilitan enforces the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) through checks, permits and quotas for the wildlife trade.
Customs controls what goods enter and exit at major entry points in the country.
Both agencies have responded to the links drawn between them and the smuggler in this recently published work of non-fiction by American lawyer and writer, Bryan Christy.
The 240-page hardcover that went on sale in Malaysia last month is dominated by the story of a cat-and-mouse chase.
It is the story of the Van Nostrands -- once the primary supplier of reptiles to pet stores and zoos around the world -- and the determined special agent Chip Bepler, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who tries to nab them.
The father-son team of Ray and Mike Van Nostrand ran Strictly Reptiles and were known as the most notorious reptile smugglers in the United States .
At its height, the company occupied a 10,000 square-foot warehouse in Hollywood overflowing with a menagerie of reptiles.
It boasted a frog room, arachnid room, python rooms, a locked venomous room and even walk-in freezers in which dead snakes and spiders were kept for voodoo rituals.
With specimens like giant Aldabra tortoises priced at US$22,500 (RM78,000) a pair, the money was good.
But the real thrill lay in collecting the rare, the unique and the hardly-ever-seen.
One of the Van Nostrands' many suppliers was Malaysian wildlife trader Anson Wong.
The book describes Wong as "the most important person in the international reptile business" and "reptile smuggling's crown jewel".
The chapter "Fortress Malay-sia" tells of Wong's dealings with an undercover agent that leads to his arrest in Mexico City in 1998.
Wong was extradited to the US and in 2001, was sentenced in a US federal court in San Francisco to 71 months in prison for trafficking in rare and endangered wildlife.
It was dubbed one of the largest cases of illegal trade ever prosecuted in the US .
Drawing from legal documents, official investigation reports and interviews, Christy describes how Wong had laundered protected star tortoises by the hundreds though Malaysia and the Middle East .
Frilled dragons, native to New Guinea and Australia , turned up at the Miami International Airport accompanied by Malaysian paperwork.
Wong boasts about working things out with a high-level government official.
Christy also describes the awe of one human courier when he was received at the Penang airport and driven to Wong's office by a high-ranking Customs official.
And the book is peppered with Perhilitan officers.
Wong also boasted about bribing Cites officials to falsify permit details.
Perhilitan officers would sign a permit allowing the trade of a protected animal under the terms of the convention.
The convention ensures that international trade in wild plants and animals does not threaten their survival.
Quotes from recorded telephone conversations and from faxes and emails between Wong and the US agent who posed as a wildlife importer, tell how the former took advantage of loopholes in the law.
He would arrange for a fall guy to get arrested with smuggled wildlife and then buy the confiscated animals that are auctioned off by authorities, legally, under the law. All the while knowing he would be safe. As one quote reads: "I could sell a panda and nothing. As long as I'm here, I'm safe."
Obsessed with meaner, hotter creatures
As a second-grader, Bryan Christy brought a king snake to school for show-and-tell. "Kids gathered, naturally; teachers from other grades poked their heads into the classroom, older boys stopped me in the hallway; The principal called me to his office so he could look inside my pillowcase.
"I don't think I ever recovered from the celebrity I achieved simply for holding what other people were afraid of, what they had been taught was wrong," Christy writes in his book The Lizard King.
It seemed like reptiles were always treated as nature's outlaws and for this one-time lawyer and Fulbright scholar, a crime story about reptiles seemed like the perfect vehicle to tell a reptile story and make it interesting even for people who didn't like them.
This is what he achieved in The Lizard King -- opened a small but rare window into the world of reptile smuggling where a childhood fondness for creepy crawlies morphs into an adult obsession for bigger, meaner, rarer and hotter creatures.
And when he discovered the ingenuity of Mike Van Norstrand, a king of that wild universe, and the incredible effort of agent Chip Bepler, who strove to stop him, Christy knew he had a reptile thriller.
"When I found out how their relationship ended, I wanted to write a book to honour that story," he said.
So Christy sought out Van Nostrand, slowly befriending him and finally persuading him to open up about himself, his world and legal troubles.
Then one day, Van Nostrand instructed his lawyer to turn over six years' worth of legal files to Christy.
"As a lawyer, getting access to a criminal's files was an incredible gift.
"I got the files late in my work so it was also an additional way to confirm that all my facts were right."
It took Christy four years of research and three months of writing to realise The Lizard King. Dozens of official sources and countless meetings with every major character who played a part in the real-life version of the story added to the workload.
The response, he said, had been good in the conservation and wildlife trade communities.
That's no surprise when a book tells of turtles stuffed into suitcases and snakes smuggled in trousers, while painting a very human picture of crafty smugglers -- with insights into their childhood, families and obsessions.
The book isn't meant to judge.
"There are high walls between these two worlds. Midway into this book I realised I might be able to build a window.
"It made me realise the book might be important as well as entertaining and led me to ground it in history people might not know."
But the writer still thinks that illegal trafficking is a horrendous crime.
"There is not a country in the world that adequately polices illegal wildlife trade.
"By definition illegal trade is cross-border and there are no adequate resources or manpower devoted to it.
"Wildlife crime is crime and source countries and consumer countries need to treat it that way."
A work of fiction, says Wildlife Department
It's all fiction -- that's the response from the National Parks and Wildlife Department (Perhilitan) to some of the startling revelations in The Lizard King.
In a faxed response to the New Sunday Times, the department said it did not confer any immunity or special treatment to anyone in the wildlife trade and questioned the author's motives.
"Where the Wildlife and National Parks Department is concerned, this book is simply fiction.
"There is no reference or citation, thus its reliability and integrity is questionable," the fax read.
In the end notes, author Bryan Christy did list his sources.
The book was based on thousands of pages of telephone transcripts and investigative reports from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
In response to our questions, Christy said conversations in quotations were taken verbatim from recorded telephone conversations.
Christy added he had access to agents across the country and had assistance from enforcement agencies in the Netherlands who helped in the US investigations.
Lead investigator Chip Bepler's personal notes were made available to Christy and the US attorney's office in Miami made its prosecutors available throughout South Florida where much of the story is based.
Christy said he met most of the major characters, including Anson Wong whom he interviewed last year. He described Wong as "very gracious".
Perhilitan said Wong carried out his business legally and in compliance with domestic laws.
"The key person (Wong) mentioned in the said book has been compounded and dealt with under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972," the department said.
In a follow-up telephone conversation, a Perhilitan officer clarified that this was for previous offences and not the case which led to Wong's arrest in 1998.
On the disposal of confiscated animals, the department said it had been carried out in compliance with procedures.
On Malaysia being a conduit for the illegal wildlife trade, the department said: "Due to the strategic location surrounded by rich biodiversity countries, Malaysia is the best target used as transit point to smuggle animals ever since the illicit wildlife flourishing (sic)."
Meanwhile, the Customs Department said it would investigate the incident implicating one of its officers.
In an email response, head of the public relations unit, Hamzah Ahamad, assured that if at all true, it was an isolated case.
Posted on 24 September 2008 by katrin under News
The New Straits Times: An American-penned hardcover details how Malaysian Anson Wong, dubbed 'the most important person in the international reptile business', was nabbed in Mexico and also his alleged links with Malaysian officials, writes lizabeth John. It's a story of crime, wildlife smuggling and money. It stars flamboyant characters dripping with gold chains, driving luxury vehicles and politicians -- the smugglers who are as slippery as the rare reptiles they traffic across the globe for sums of money that beggar belief.
But what is so fascinating about The Lizard King or relevant here is the capture of one Malaysian reptile smuggler and his vast reach and influence.
Key agencies linked to the smuggler are the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.
Perhilitan enforces the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) through checks, permits and quotas for the wildlife trade.
Customs controls what goods enter and exit at major entry points in the country.
Both agencies have responded to the links drawn between them and the smuggler in this recently published work of non-fiction by American lawyer and writer, Bryan Christy.
The 240-page hardcover that went on sale in Malaysia last month is dominated by the story of a cat-and-mouse chase.
It is the story of the Van Nostrands -- once the primary supplier of reptiles to pet stores and zoos around the world -- and the determined special agent Chip Bepler, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who tries to nab them.
The father-son team of Ray and Mike Van Nostrand ran Strictly Reptiles and were known as the most notorious reptile smugglers in the United States .
At its height, the company occupied a 10,000 square-foot warehouse in Hollywood overflowing with a menagerie of reptiles.
It boasted a frog room, arachnid room, python rooms, a locked venomous room and even walk-in freezers in which dead snakes and spiders were kept for voodoo rituals.
With specimens like giant Aldabra tortoises priced at US$22,500 (RM78,000) a pair, the money was good.
But the real thrill lay in collecting the rare, the unique and the hardly-ever-seen.
One of the Van Nostrands' many suppliers was Malaysian wildlife trader Anson Wong.
The book describes Wong as "the most important person in the international reptile business" and "reptile smuggling's crown jewel".
The chapter "Fortress Malay-sia" tells of Wong's dealings with an undercover agent that leads to his arrest in Mexico City in 1998.
Wong was extradited to the US and in 2001, was sentenced in a US federal court in San Francisco to 71 months in prison for trafficking in rare and endangered wildlife.
It was dubbed one of the largest cases of illegal trade ever prosecuted in the US .
Drawing from legal documents, official investigation reports and interviews, Christy describes how Wong had laundered protected star tortoises by the hundreds though Malaysia and the Middle East .
Frilled dragons, native to New Guinea and Australia , turned up at the Miami International Airport accompanied by Malaysian paperwork.
Wong boasts about working things out with a high-level government official.
Christy also describes the awe of one human courier when he was received at the Penang airport and driven to Wong's office by a high-ranking Customs official.
And the book is peppered with Perhilitan officers.
Wong also boasted about bribing Cites officials to falsify permit details.
Perhilitan officers would sign a permit allowing the trade of a protected animal under the terms of the convention.
The convention ensures that international trade in wild plants and animals does not threaten their survival.
Quotes from recorded telephone conversations and from faxes and emails between Wong and the US agent who posed as a wildlife importer, tell how the former took advantage of loopholes in the law.
He would arrange for a fall guy to get arrested with smuggled wildlife and then buy the confiscated animals that are auctioned off by authorities, legally, under the law. All the while knowing he would be safe. As one quote reads: "I could sell a panda and nothing. As long as I'm here, I'm safe."
Obsessed with meaner, hotter creatures
As a second-grader, Bryan Christy brought a king snake to school for show-and-tell. "Kids gathered, naturally; teachers from other grades poked their heads into the classroom, older boys stopped me in the hallway; The principal called me to his office so he could look inside my pillowcase.
"I don't think I ever recovered from the celebrity I achieved simply for holding what other people were afraid of, what they had been taught was wrong," Christy writes in his book The Lizard King.
It seemed like reptiles were always treated as nature's outlaws and for this one-time lawyer and Fulbright scholar, a crime story about reptiles seemed like the perfect vehicle to tell a reptile story and make it interesting even for people who didn't like them.
This is what he achieved in The Lizard King -- opened a small but rare window into the world of reptile smuggling where a childhood fondness for creepy crawlies morphs into an adult obsession for bigger, meaner, rarer and hotter creatures.
And when he discovered the ingenuity of Mike Van Norstrand, a king of that wild universe, and the incredible effort of agent Chip Bepler, who strove to stop him, Christy knew he had a reptile thriller.
"When I found out how their relationship ended, I wanted to write a book to honour that story," he said.
So Christy sought out Van Nostrand, slowly befriending him and finally persuading him to open up about himself, his world and legal troubles.
Then one day, Van Nostrand instructed his lawyer to turn over six years' worth of legal files to Christy.
"As a lawyer, getting access to a criminal's files was an incredible gift.
"I got the files late in my work so it was also an additional way to confirm that all my facts were right."
It took Christy four years of research and three months of writing to realise The Lizard King. Dozens of official sources and countless meetings with every major character who played a part in the real-life version of the story added to the workload.
The response, he said, had been good in the conservation and wildlife trade communities.
That's no surprise when a book tells of turtles stuffed into suitcases and snakes smuggled in trousers, while painting a very human picture of crafty smugglers -- with insights into their childhood, families and obsessions.
The book isn't meant to judge.
"There are high walls between these two worlds. Midway into this book I realised I might be able to build a window.
"It made me realise the book might be important as well as entertaining and led me to ground it in history people might not know."
But the writer still thinks that illegal trafficking is a horrendous crime.
"There is not a country in the world that adequately polices illegal wildlife trade.
"By definition illegal trade is cross-border and there are no adequate resources or manpower devoted to it.
"Wildlife crime is crime and source countries and consumer countries need to treat it that way."
A work of fiction, says Wildlife Department
It's all fiction -- that's the response from the National Parks and Wildlife Department (Perhilitan) to some of the startling revelations in The Lizard King.
In a faxed response to the New Sunday Times, the department said it did not confer any immunity or special treatment to anyone in the wildlife trade and questioned the author's motives.
"Where the Wildlife and National Parks Department is concerned, this book is simply fiction.
"There is no reference or citation, thus its reliability and integrity is questionable," the fax read.
In the end notes, author Bryan Christy did list his sources.
The book was based on thousands of pages of telephone transcripts and investigative reports from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
In response to our questions, Christy said conversations in quotations were taken verbatim from recorded telephone conversations.
Christy added he had access to agents across the country and had assistance from enforcement agencies in the Netherlands who helped in the US investigations.
Lead investigator Chip Bepler's personal notes were made available to Christy and the US attorney's office in Miami made its prosecutors available throughout South Florida where much of the story is based.
Christy said he met most of the major characters, including Anson Wong whom he interviewed last year. He described Wong as "very gracious".
Perhilitan said Wong carried out his business legally and in compliance with domestic laws.
"The key person (Wong) mentioned in the said book has been compounded and dealt with under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972," the department said.
In a follow-up telephone conversation, a Perhilitan officer clarified that this was for previous offences and not the case which led to Wong's arrest in 1998.
On the disposal of confiscated animals, the department said it had been carried out in compliance with procedures.
On Malaysia being a conduit for the illegal wildlife trade, the department said: "Due to the strategic location surrounded by rich biodiversity countries, Malaysia is the best target used as transit point to smuggle animals ever since the illicit wildlife flourishing (sic)."
Meanwhile, the Customs Department said it would investigate the incident implicating one of its officers.
In an email response, head of the public relations unit, Hamzah Ahamad, assured that if at all true, it was an isolated case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/archive/1185917.stm
The global racket in the trafficking of rare and endangered animals is bigger than the world's arms smuggling rackets and second only in size to the illegal traffic in drugs. Tom Mangold reports on the impact of the four billion pound a year trade.
There are 71 reptile species on the verge of extinction. The illegal trade in reptiles is playing a ruthless part. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, we are into the greatest extinction of historical times.
The profit scales are similar to those in the drug trade. But the sentences for those caught are far smaller.
Wong led one of the world's biggest reptile smuggling gangs
Anson Wong from Malaysia ran the biggest global animal dealer and smuggling operation that has ever been broken. He is in a Californian prison awaiting sentencing. The prosecutors are hoping he will get an exemplary sentence to deter the illegal traders.
Young, cultured, and ruthless, Wong had worked his way to the top of the animal underworld. In Malaysia, Wong owned a private zoo. It was a perfect front for illegal dealing in protected wildlife.
He dealt with creatures protected by an international convention called Cites for rare and endangered species threatened with extinction. Trade in these creatures is either forbidden or strictly regulated. Wong simply ignored the law.
He stole almost extinct Komodo dragons from their islands in Indonesia. It is the world's largest lizard, valued at £20,000. He dealt in the critically endangered Chinese alligator worth at least £11,000 on the black market.
Great tortoise robbery
Wong was also involved in the biggest ever theft of precious reptiles. It proved to be his downfall.
The Ploughshare tortoise has a street value of £35,000
The delicate ploughshare tortoise from remote Madagascar is the jewel in the crown of the reptile world. But its beautiful shell has threatened its survival.
The ploughshare has been stolen and hunted to the point of extinction. There are less than a thousand left alive, probably insufficient to sustain continuity of the species.
The attempt to run a breeding programme in Madagascar to save the ploughshare collapsed when 75 of them were stolen. The haul was worth one and half million pounds on the black market.
Wong gained access to about 37 of the stolen ploughshares. He offered two of them to PacRim, an undercover business set up by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
US Federal Agent Ernest Mayer says, "the only way to really address or organise the smuggling, criminal rings that were smuggling the animal in was to set up an undercover business, a sting operation to catch them in the act."
It was known as Operation Chameleon, and Wong was their major target. After a long investigation Wong was lured to a meeting with PacRim and arrested as he stepped off the plane in Mexico.
There are many animal species that are not going to survive
Ernest Mayer
To date Operation Chameleon has caught 26 animal smugglers and traffickers from six countries. All have been successfully prosecuted. But even this huge operation has failed to do much more than set the traffic back for a while.
Losing battle
Ernest Mayer says: "There are many animal species that are not going to survive, they're going to go extinct so I think from that standpoint we're losing."
Although there are international agreements to protect these species, they carry little weight in countries like Cameroon where illicit animal dealing is a fact of life.
Paul Sullivan left Britain to become a trafficker in West Africa
Paul Sullivan has broken laws that protect reptiles from being poached and traded to extinction. He says "The trade has benefits for hundreds of people. I make a living and lots of people make a living from something which is a useless item to a person in a third world country."
Sullivan was sent to prison in California in February 2000. He pleaded guilty to several charges of illegally trafficking endangered reptiles to the United States.
Reptiles in demand
In America, the legal trade in live reptiles has increased by 2000 per cent in a mere nine years. It is this demand for unsuitable pets that helps fuel the illegal trafficking.
And that demand is still growing despite the risks involved in keeping these animals, and the risks to the environment.
Animals that are recovered cannot be returned to the wild. They would probably die, or infect other wildlife with their alien Western germs. Essentially, they are biologically dead.
when you watch the video please dont think anson wong is ah ram hor
[video=youtube;E_L3WtOSDAQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_L3WtOSDAQ[/video]
The global racket in the trafficking of rare and endangered animals is bigger than the world's arms smuggling rackets and second only in size to the illegal traffic in drugs. Tom Mangold reports on the impact of the four billion pound a year trade.
There are 71 reptile species on the verge of extinction. The illegal trade in reptiles is playing a ruthless part. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, we are into the greatest extinction of historical times.
The profit scales are similar to those in the drug trade. But the sentences for those caught are far smaller.
Wong led one of the world's biggest reptile smuggling gangs
Anson Wong from Malaysia ran the biggest global animal dealer and smuggling operation that has ever been broken. He is in a Californian prison awaiting sentencing. The prosecutors are hoping he will get an exemplary sentence to deter the illegal traders.
Young, cultured, and ruthless, Wong had worked his way to the top of the animal underworld. In Malaysia, Wong owned a private zoo. It was a perfect front for illegal dealing in protected wildlife.
He dealt with creatures protected by an international convention called Cites for rare and endangered species threatened with extinction. Trade in these creatures is either forbidden or strictly regulated. Wong simply ignored the law.
He stole almost extinct Komodo dragons from their islands in Indonesia. It is the world's largest lizard, valued at £20,000. He dealt in the critically endangered Chinese alligator worth at least £11,000 on the black market.
Great tortoise robbery
Wong was also involved in the biggest ever theft of precious reptiles. It proved to be his downfall.
The Ploughshare tortoise has a street value of £35,000
The delicate ploughshare tortoise from remote Madagascar is the jewel in the crown of the reptile world. But its beautiful shell has threatened its survival.
The ploughshare has been stolen and hunted to the point of extinction. There are less than a thousand left alive, probably insufficient to sustain continuity of the species.
The attempt to run a breeding programme in Madagascar to save the ploughshare collapsed when 75 of them were stolen. The haul was worth one and half million pounds on the black market.
Wong gained access to about 37 of the stolen ploughshares. He offered two of them to PacRim, an undercover business set up by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
US Federal Agent Ernest Mayer says, "the only way to really address or organise the smuggling, criminal rings that were smuggling the animal in was to set up an undercover business, a sting operation to catch them in the act."
It was known as Operation Chameleon, and Wong was their major target. After a long investigation Wong was lured to a meeting with PacRim and arrested as he stepped off the plane in Mexico.
There are many animal species that are not going to survive
Ernest Mayer
To date Operation Chameleon has caught 26 animal smugglers and traffickers from six countries. All have been successfully prosecuted. But even this huge operation has failed to do much more than set the traffic back for a while.
Losing battle
Ernest Mayer says: "There are many animal species that are not going to survive, they're going to go extinct so I think from that standpoint we're losing."
Although there are international agreements to protect these species, they carry little weight in countries like Cameroon where illicit animal dealing is a fact of life.
Paul Sullivan left Britain to become a trafficker in West Africa
Paul Sullivan has broken laws that protect reptiles from being poached and traded to extinction. He says "The trade has benefits for hundreds of people. I make a living and lots of people make a living from something which is a useless item to a person in a third world country."
Sullivan was sent to prison in California in February 2000. He pleaded guilty to several charges of illegally trafficking endangered reptiles to the United States.
Reptiles in demand
In America, the legal trade in live reptiles has increased by 2000 per cent in a mere nine years. It is this demand for unsuitable pets that helps fuel the illegal trafficking.
And that demand is still growing despite the risks involved in keeping these animals, and the risks to the environment.
Animals that are recovered cannot be returned to the wild. They would probably die, or infect other wildlife with their alien Western germs. Essentially, they are biologically dead.
when you watch the video please dont think anson wong is ah ram hor
[video=youtube;E_L3WtOSDAQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_L3WtOSDAQ[/video]
Last edited:
Endangered creatures for sale
Illegal animal trade reaps billions yearly
Dec 20, 2003
By CHARLES SEABROOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawrence Wee Soon Chye, who once advised National Geographic filmmakers with
his authoritative knowledge of reptiles, hung his head as a federal judge
tongue-lashed him in an Orlando courtroom.
"Your crimes are reprehensible," said U.S. District Judge John Antoon. "They
not only are a form of animal cruelty, they also endanger public health."
Antoon wished out loud that he could sentence Chye to a much longer sentence
than the 37 months federal guidelines allow.
Chye, 38, in a prison jumpsuit brilliant as a scarlet macaw, pleaded guilty
this month to charges that he smuggled hundreds of endangered and protected
creatures to dealers and collectors in the United States last January. His
lucrative black market career, likely spawned by his fascination with
reptiles as a child in Singapore, was over.
Tens of thousands of endangered wild creatures from Brazil, Indonesia, Ghana
and other countries are being smuggled each year to black markets in the
United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Traffickers entice native people --
often resourceful children -- to capture coveted animals from rain forests
and other wild habitats. A hyacinth macaw bought for $100 from an
impoverished Amazon youngster can fetch as much as $10,000 from collectors
in the United States and Europe.
Antoon summed up the consequences of the illegal animal trade: Not only does
it threaten many species with extinction and risk despoiling entire natural
areas, but it also threatens public health by introducing exotic germs, many
of them deadly, to humans.
Both of this year's novel scourges, monkeypox and SARS, stemmed from contact
with wild animals. And West Nile virus may have originated in the United
States with an infected smuggled bird.
It was the rank odor wafting from two boxes shipped from Singapore, boxes
labeled "books and magazines," that provoked a U.S. customs inspector at the
FedEx hub in Memphis to look inside.
No books. No magazines. The inspector recoiled at what he saw.
Numerous reptiles, a few of them dead, packed tightly inside -- 198 Fly
River turtles from New Guinea, 25 Indian star tortoises from India, and
three Timor monitor lizards -- among the species protected by international
law because of their increasing scarcity in the wild. And many of them
potential carriers of deadly exotic diseases that threaten to sicken people
and other animals in this country.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service special agents traced the creatures, worth as
much as $400,000 on the black market, to Chye, described as a smooth-talking
kingpin in the world of animal smuggling. They nabbed him within hours of
his arrival in Orlando, where he planned to set up a temporary headquarters.
From his compound in Singapore, authorities say, Chye profited as a broker
of rare animals to dealers and individual buyers.
The insatiable demand for exotic pets, from parrots and macaws to pythons
and iguanas, is driving the wildlife trade, estimated at $6 billion a year.
At the high end are collectors willing to pay thousands of dollars for
exceptionally rare animals, like Komodo dragons for $30,000 each and
plowshare tortoises at $25,000 each. At the other end are teenagers and
apartment dwellers who spend $30 to $75 for animals at pet stores and exotic
animal shows and on the Internet.
"Anything that walks, creeps, crawls or flies has a price on its head," says
Mike Elkins, deputy assistant law enforcement supervisor for the Fish &
Wildlife Service in Atlanta. Trade in endangered animals is generally
illegal under a 30-year-old treaty signed by the United States and 162 other
countries. But the treaty is little match for the huge profits and minimal
risks that lure smugglers -- whose contraband most often ends up in the
United States.
And most often ends up dead. Authorities figure that as many as 75 percent
of the smuggled creatures die on their long, hot, airless journey.
Interpol, the international police agency, says wildlife smuggling is so
pervasive on a global scale, it is surpassed only by the black market in
drugs. In many areas, organized gangs, including South American drug cartels
and the Russian mafia, have added wildlife smuggling to their other
illegitimate activities.
Putting major traffickers like Chye out of business puts a dent in the
illicit trade, but perhaps only temporarily, say wildlife authorities. Other
traffickers are eager to fill the void, using a variety of ruthless schemes
to get endangered wildlife into the hands of dealers, collectors and exotic
pet fanciers.
Stopping the smugglers in this country is an overwhelming task, Elkins says,
since only 92 federal wildlife inspectors are assigned to airports and
border crossings nationwide. And preventing the extinction of some species
may be impossible.
"With the loss of habitat and the illegal smuggling of animals for profit
and gain, there are many animals that are . . . going to go extinct," says
Ernest Mayer, head of special operations for the Fish & Wildlife Service.
"So I think from that standpoint we're losing."
First U.S. stop: Miami
Most of the black market animals entering the United States arrive by air.
The hot spot in the Southeast is Miami International, with its connections
to South America. Opening cartons there, the airport's five wildlife
inspectors routinely find snakes, lizards, tortoises, parrots -- and
sometimes baby orangutans.
In an airport warehouse, inspector Jim Stinebaugh cautiously slits open a
large box labeled "Live Frogs."
"No matter how many times you do this, you get a little antsy," he says.
Poisonous snakes are sometimes found inside shipments.
In this box, Stinebaugh finds layer upon layer of plastic foam cups with
lids. Each holds a thumb-size frog, snatched from the wild and shipped from
the South American country of Suriname.
Another box holds dozens of clear plastic containers, each harboring a
crawly rose-haired tarantula spider from Chile. "They'll spray you with
hairs if you make them mad," Stinebaugh warns.
This time the animals are legal, he concludes -- headed for pet shops in the
United States and Canada.
As best he can, he checks to see if any endangered species are stashed with
the legal animals, a common ploy of wildlife smugglers.
He is mindful that one smuggling tactic is to pile bags containing water
monitors -- aggressive lizards that can be shipped legally -- atop an
endangered animal at the bottom of a crate. The smugglers know that most
inspectors are reluctant to shove around snapping lizards to look for
contraband beneath.
One of the world's most notorious wildlife smugglers, Keng Liang "Anson"
Wong, 44 -- released last month from a federal prison in California after
serving six years -- used this method. From his private zoo in Malaysia, he
shipped thousands of rare and endangered creatures, mostly reptiles, to
collectors in the United States, Japan and Europe.
To fool airport customs and wildlife inspectors, he bound the rare animals
with tape so they couldn't move and stuffed them in burlap bags stapled to
the bottom of shipping crates. Many died from the harsh shipping conditions,
but Wong stood to profit as long as some survived.
In Miami, Stinebaugh's boss, Vicky Vina, says that on a good day, inspectors
there are able to peek inside about three in every 10 shipments.
"We get awfully busy," she says. "We often get 60 to 70 wildlife shipments
through here in one day."
Scores of animals -- mostly reptiles -- were smuggled through Miami by Chye,
Wong and others.
Not all smuggled animals come through cargo facilities. Airline passengers
hide live creatures in their baggage and clothing. Miami's agents have found
tiny marmoset monkeys under hats, parrot chicks and baby snakes in
underwear, and little tortoises stuffed in baggy pants.
Once, when customs inspectors in the Miami terminal noticed a woman's bust
wiggling, they found rare parrot chicks stuffed in her bra. More recently, a
man's heavy, loose-fitting clothing was a tip-off -- he was trying to
smuggle 44 birds through the airport by taping them inside toilet paper
tubes and securing the tubes to his legs.
Sometimes the animals are simply stashed in suitcases.
In one Argentinian passenger's suitcase, Miami inspectors found 107 chaco
tortoises, 102 red-footed tortoises, 76 tartaruga turtles, 20 red Tegu
lizards, seven rainbow boa constrictors and five Argentine boa
constrictors -- all barred from global trade.
"Smugglers use every little trick they can muster to stay one step ahead of
us," says Jorge Picon, wildlife agent in charge at Miami. "It's a
never-ending struggle."
In business since '97
Chye, a short, trim man whose dark horn-rimmed glasses give him a
professorial look, acknowledged in court documents that he had bought, sold
and traded reptiles -- legally and illegally -- since 1997.
"He had a strong interest in animals and at one point worked for National
Geographic as a consultant," said his federal public defender, Stephen
Langs. Chye made no statements in court, and Langs refused to let him be
interviewed.
Prosecutors said he shipped hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of protected
animals to dealers and collectors in Florida, Massachusetts, California and
Washington state. Most were sent via FedEx, labeled as books, magazines,
lamps or other merchandise.
One California collector said Chye sent him an emerald tree monitor, which
grows as long as 34 inches, and a yellow boa constrictor in a shipment
labeled as "microwave safe" plastic container samples. Both reptiles are
protected.
In August 2002, according to court records, Chye, using the alias Jon
Morelia, (Morelia is the genus name for carpet and diamond python snakes)
met University of Central Florida business student Michael Barrera at the
International Reptile Breeders Exposition in Daytona Beach. Barrera claimed
to be an Internet reptile dealer.
He and Chye agreed to do business together. Chye, in a show of friendship,
invited Barrera to Indonesia to go "reptile hunting."
Barrera was the eventual recipient of the odoriferous shipment of turtles,
tortoises and monitor lizards that came through Memphis in January, touching
off the investigation of Chye.
When confronted, Barrera told authorities about several previous illegal
shipments between himself and Chye involving hundreds of endangered snakes,
lizards and turtles. Several of the reptiles died en route. At one point, he
said, Chye offered to send him Komodo dragons, one of the world's most
endangered species.
Barrera has not been charged. He could not be reached for comment for this
article. In court papers, he said he had known what he was doing was illegal
and that he "had been stupid" to get involved with Morelia.
A collector in Washington state tipped off investigators that Chye and a
business associate were flying from Bangkok, Thailand, to Orlando in June to
set up a temporary smuggling operation.
The associate, Leong Tian Kum, 33, a Bangkok reptile dealer, was arrested
with Chye shortly after they landed at Orlando International Airport.
Kum, aka "Bobby Lee," was charged with money laundering and illegally
sending endangered animals to a Wisconsin dealer. Authorities said he
shipped pancake tortoises from East Africa, Hermann's tortoises from the
Mediterranean rim countries, and Borneo leaf turtles in FedEx packages --
labeled "native crafts."
Arrested in Waukesha, Wis., was Reid Turowski, 28, owner of Captive Bred
Specialties, who was accused of illegally receiving the animals from Lum.
Both men face more than 10 years in prison.
The dead zone
Many smugglers avoid live animals altogether. They traffic in dead animals,
or their parts, fueling a black market that parallels the pet trade -- and
adding to the threat to individual animals, species and ecosystems.
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport receives relatively few
live animals, though it gets plenty of illegal objects made from rare
animals -- skins, shawls, carved ivory objects and the like.
When U.S. authorities find endangered or otherwise illegal animal parts at
airports and border crossings, they are sent to the National Wildlife
Property Repository near Denver, a facility that bears stark testimony to
the size and breadth of this market.
Shelves are piled high with boots, wallets, purses, briefcases and coats
made of the skin of elephants, caimans, cobras, leopards, jaguars and other
animals. Bins sag with hair clips, combs and necklaces carved from sea
turtle shells. Tons of confiscated elephant ivory occupy other bins. The
"Asian Medicine Section" holds black bear gallbladders, dried tiger penises
and powders and extracts made of tiger bones and black rhino horns.
Locked in a cabinet are more than 50 softer-than-silk "shahtoosh" shawls,
many seized from an international smuggling ring. The shawls, worth $30,000
each on the black market, are made from the fine hair of endangered Tibetan
antelopes, which must be killed before their hair can be harvested.
Though the warehouse is crammed with confiscated animal products, it's still
just a holding facility. Most of the illegal merchandise will end up in
schools or museums or being sold at auction.
"We're constantly turning over our inventory," says Special Agent in Charge
Bernadette Atencio. "If we didn't, we'd be stacked up in no time."
Trade shows popular
By far the most lucrative side of the wildlife trade is live animals.
Nearly 7 million U.S. households have a pet bird, and 4 million have a pet
snake, iguana or turtle, according to the American Pet Products
Manufacturers Association. Some of the interest comes from people who live
in apartments or those with allergies to dogs and cats.
Particularly unusual animals, however, are attention getters and status
symbols.
The fascination with exotic pets perhaps is most apparent at the more than
400 wild pet expos held around the country each year.
Typical of those gatherings is the Atlanta Reptile and Exotic Pet Show, held
last month at the Gwinnett Gwinnett Civic & Cultural Center. Scores of
visitors paid $7 apiece to get in, then stood in line at booth after booth
to buy exotic pets.
A Brazilian rainbow boa, $175. A Goliath bird-eating tarantula, $100. A
Bengal cat kitten, $400. A Moluccan cockatoo, $1,500. Emerald tree boa,
$275. African spur-thigh tortoise, $225.
Authorities say Chye and other global wildlife dealers are regulars at some
of the bigger shows, making valuable contacts and deals there. Most dealers
are believed to be operating legally.
Most of the animals they offer for sale were likely bred legally in
captivity, which authorities say avoids harm to wild populations -- but not
in every case.
The animals may have been snatched illegally from the wild, a cheaper source
of inventory for dealers.
The problem is determining if an animal is captive-bred or smuggled.
"Once an animal is smuggled in, it's difficult to determine if it's legal or
illegal," says Tom Watts-Fitzgerald, a U.S. attorney who prosecutes
smuggling cases in Miami. "Dealers claim their animals are captive-bred and
legal.
"But if you go to a pet show or a store to buy an exotic pet, you really
have no foolproof way of knowing if it's legal or not."
______________________________________________________________________________
Illegal animal trade reaps billions yearly
Dec 20, 2003
By CHARLES SEABROOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawrence Wee Soon Chye, who once advised National Geographic filmmakers with
his authoritative knowledge of reptiles, hung his head as a federal judge
tongue-lashed him in an Orlando courtroom.
"Your crimes are reprehensible," said U.S. District Judge John Antoon. "They
not only are a form of animal cruelty, they also endanger public health."
Antoon wished out loud that he could sentence Chye to a much longer sentence
than the 37 months federal guidelines allow.
Chye, 38, in a prison jumpsuit brilliant as a scarlet macaw, pleaded guilty
this month to charges that he smuggled hundreds of endangered and protected
creatures to dealers and collectors in the United States last January. His
lucrative black market career, likely spawned by his fascination with
reptiles as a child in Singapore, was over.
Tens of thousands of endangered wild creatures from Brazil, Indonesia, Ghana
and other countries are being smuggled each year to black markets in the
United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Traffickers entice native people --
often resourceful children -- to capture coveted animals from rain forests
and other wild habitats. A hyacinth macaw bought for $100 from an
impoverished Amazon youngster can fetch as much as $10,000 from collectors
in the United States and Europe.
Antoon summed up the consequences of the illegal animal trade: Not only does
it threaten many species with extinction and risk despoiling entire natural
areas, but it also threatens public health by introducing exotic germs, many
of them deadly, to humans.
Both of this year's novel scourges, monkeypox and SARS, stemmed from contact
with wild animals. And West Nile virus may have originated in the United
States with an infected smuggled bird.
It was the rank odor wafting from two boxes shipped from Singapore, boxes
labeled "books and magazines," that provoked a U.S. customs inspector at the
FedEx hub in Memphis to look inside.
No books. No magazines. The inspector recoiled at what he saw.
Numerous reptiles, a few of them dead, packed tightly inside -- 198 Fly
River turtles from New Guinea, 25 Indian star tortoises from India, and
three Timor monitor lizards -- among the species protected by international
law because of their increasing scarcity in the wild. And many of them
potential carriers of deadly exotic diseases that threaten to sicken people
and other animals in this country.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service special agents traced the creatures, worth as
much as $400,000 on the black market, to Chye, described as a smooth-talking
kingpin in the world of animal smuggling. They nabbed him within hours of
his arrival in Orlando, where he planned to set up a temporary headquarters.
From his compound in Singapore, authorities say, Chye profited as a broker
of rare animals to dealers and individual buyers.
The insatiable demand for exotic pets, from parrots and macaws to pythons
and iguanas, is driving the wildlife trade, estimated at $6 billion a year.
At the high end are collectors willing to pay thousands of dollars for
exceptionally rare animals, like Komodo dragons for $30,000 each and
plowshare tortoises at $25,000 each. At the other end are teenagers and
apartment dwellers who spend $30 to $75 for animals at pet stores and exotic
animal shows and on the Internet.
"Anything that walks, creeps, crawls or flies has a price on its head," says
Mike Elkins, deputy assistant law enforcement supervisor for the Fish &
Wildlife Service in Atlanta. Trade in endangered animals is generally
illegal under a 30-year-old treaty signed by the United States and 162 other
countries. But the treaty is little match for the huge profits and minimal
risks that lure smugglers -- whose contraband most often ends up in the
United States.
And most often ends up dead. Authorities figure that as many as 75 percent
of the smuggled creatures die on their long, hot, airless journey.
Interpol, the international police agency, says wildlife smuggling is so
pervasive on a global scale, it is surpassed only by the black market in
drugs. In many areas, organized gangs, including South American drug cartels
and the Russian mafia, have added wildlife smuggling to their other
illegitimate activities.
Putting major traffickers like Chye out of business puts a dent in the
illicit trade, but perhaps only temporarily, say wildlife authorities. Other
traffickers are eager to fill the void, using a variety of ruthless schemes
to get endangered wildlife into the hands of dealers, collectors and exotic
pet fanciers.
Stopping the smugglers in this country is an overwhelming task, Elkins says,
since only 92 federal wildlife inspectors are assigned to airports and
border crossings nationwide. And preventing the extinction of some species
may be impossible.
"With the loss of habitat and the illegal smuggling of animals for profit
and gain, there are many animals that are . . . going to go extinct," says
Ernest Mayer, head of special operations for the Fish & Wildlife Service.
"So I think from that standpoint we're losing."
First U.S. stop: Miami
Most of the black market animals entering the United States arrive by air.
The hot spot in the Southeast is Miami International, with its connections
to South America. Opening cartons there, the airport's five wildlife
inspectors routinely find snakes, lizards, tortoises, parrots -- and
sometimes baby orangutans.
In an airport warehouse, inspector Jim Stinebaugh cautiously slits open a
large box labeled "Live Frogs."
"No matter how many times you do this, you get a little antsy," he says.
Poisonous snakes are sometimes found inside shipments.
In this box, Stinebaugh finds layer upon layer of plastic foam cups with
lids. Each holds a thumb-size frog, snatched from the wild and shipped from
the South American country of Suriname.
Another box holds dozens of clear plastic containers, each harboring a
crawly rose-haired tarantula spider from Chile. "They'll spray you with
hairs if you make them mad," Stinebaugh warns.
This time the animals are legal, he concludes -- headed for pet shops in the
United States and Canada.
As best he can, he checks to see if any endangered species are stashed with
the legal animals, a common ploy of wildlife smugglers.
He is mindful that one smuggling tactic is to pile bags containing water
monitors -- aggressive lizards that can be shipped legally -- atop an
endangered animal at the bottom of a crate. The smugglers know that most
inspectors are reluctant to shove around snapping lizards to look for
contraband beneath.
One of the world's most notorious wildlife smugglers, Keng Liang "Anson"
Wong, 44 -- released last month from a federal prison in California after
serving six years -- used this method. From his private zoo in Malaysia, he
shipped thousands of rare and endangered creatures, mostly reptiles, to
collectors in the United States, Japan and Europe.
To fool airport customs and wildlife inspectors, he bound the rare animals
with tape so they couldn't move and stuffed them in burlap bags stapled to
the bottom of shipping crates. Many died from the harsh shipping conditions,
but Wong stood to profit as long as some survived.
In Miami, Stinebaugh's boss, Vicky Vina, says that on a good day, inspectors
there are able to peek inside about three in every 10 shipments.
"We get awfully busy," she says. "We often get 60 to 70 wildlife shipments
through here in one day."
Scores of animals -- mostly reptiles -- were smuggled through Miami by Chye,
Wong and others.
Not all smuggled animals come through cargo facilities. Airline passengers
hide live creatures in their baggage and clothing. Miami's agents have found
tiny marmoset monkeys under hats, parrot chicks and baby snakes in
underwear, and little tortoises stuffed in baggy pants.
Once, when customs inspectors in the Miami terminal noticed a woman's bust
wiggling, they found rare parrot chicks stuffed in her bra. More recently, a
man's heavy, loose-fitting clothing was a tip-off -- he was trying to
smuggle 44 birds through the airport by taping them inside toilet paper
tubes and securing the tubes to his legs.
Sometimes the animals are simply stashed in suitcases.
In one Argentinian passenger's suitcase, Miami inspectors found 107 chaco
tortoises, 102 red-footed tortoises, 76 tartaruga turtles, 20 red Tegu
lizards, seven rainbow boa constrictors and five Argentine boa
constrictors -- all barred from global trade.
"Smugglers use every little trick they can muster to stay one step ahead of
us," says Jorge Picon, wildlife agent in charge at Miami. "It's a
never-ending struggle."
In business since '97
Chye, a short, trim man whose dark horn-rimmed glasses give him a
professorial look, acknowledged in court documents that he had bought, sold
and traded reptiles -- legally and illegally -- since 1997.
"He had a strong interest in animals and at one point worked for National
Geographic as a consultant," said his federal public defender, Stephen
Langs. Chye made no statements in court, and Langs refused to let him be
interviewed.
Prosecutors said he shipped hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of protected
animals to dealers and collectors in Florida, Massachusetts, California and
Washington state. Most were sent via FedEx, labeled as books, magazines,
lamps or other merchandise.
One California collector said Chye sent him an emerald tree monitor, which
grows as long as 34 inches, and a yellow boa constrictor in a shipment
labeled as "microwave safe" plastic container samples. Both reptiles are
protected.
In August 2002, according to court records, Chye, using the alias Jon
Morelia, (Morelia is the genus name for carpet and diamond python snakes)
met University of Central Florida business student Michael Barrera at the
International Reptile Breeders Exposition in Daytona Beach. Barrera claimed
to be an Internet reptile dealer.
He and Chye agreed to do business together. Chye, in a show of friendship,
invited Barrera to Indonesia to go "reptile hunting."
Barrera was the eventual recipient of the odoriferous shipment of turtles,
tortoises and monitor lizards that came through Memphis in January, touching
off the investigation of Chye.
When confronted, Barrera told authorities about several previous illegal
shipments between himself and Chye involving hundreds of endangered snakes,
lizards and turtles. Several of the reptiles died en route. At one point, he
said, Chye offered to send him Komodo dragons, one of the world's most
endangered species.
Barrera has not been charged. He could not be reached for comment for this
article. In court papers, he said he had known what he was doing was illegal
and that he "had been stupid" to get involved with Morelia.
A collector in Washington state tipped off investigators that Chye and a
business associate were flying from Bangkok, Thailand, to Orlando in June to
set up a temporary smuggling operation.
The associate, Leong Tian Kum, 33, a Bangkok reptile dealer, was arrested
with Chye shortly after they landed at Orlando International Airport.
Kum, aka "Bobby Lee," was charged with money laundering and illegally
sending endangered animals to a Wisconsin dealer. Authorities said he
shipped pancake tortoises from East Africa, Hermann's tortoises from the
Mediterranean rim countries, and Borneo leaf turtles in FedEx packages --
labeled "native crafts."
Arrested in Waukesha, Wis., was Reid Turowski, 28, owner of Captive Bred
Specialties, who was accused of illegally receiving the animals from Lum.
Both men face more than 10 years in prison.
The dead zone
Many smugglers avoid live animals altogether. They traffic in dead animals,
or their parts, fueling a black market that parallels the pet trade -- and
adding to the threat to individual animals, species and ecosystems.
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport receives relatively few
live animals, though it gets plenty of illegal objects made from rare
animals -- skins, shawls, carved ivory objects and the like.
When U.S. authorities find endangered or otherwise illegal animal parts at
airports and border crossings, they are sent to the National Wildlife
Property Repository near Denver, a facility that bears stark testimony to
the size and breadth of this market.
Shelves are piled high with boots, wallets, purses, briefcases and coats
made of the skin of elephants, caimans, cobras, leopards, jaguars and other
animals. Bins sag with hair clips, combs and necklaces carved from sea
turtle shells. Tons of confiscated elephant ivory occupy other bins. The
"Asian Medicine Section" holds black bear gallbladders, dried tiger penises
and powders and extracts made of tiger bones and black rhino horns.
Locked in a cabinet are more than 50 softer-than-silk "shahtoosh" shawls,
many seized from an international smuggling ring. The shawls, worth $30,000
each on the black market, are made from the fine hair of endangered Tibetan
antelopes, which must be killed before their hair can be harvested.
Though the warehouse is crammed with confiscated animal products, it's still
just a holding facility. Most of the illegal merchandise will end up in
schools or museums or being sold at auction.
"We're constantly turning over our inventory," says Special Agent in Charge
Bernadette Atencio. "If we didn't, we'd be stacked up in no time."
Trade shows popular
By far the most lucrative side of the wildlife trade is live animals.
Nearly 7 million U.S. households have a pet bird, and 4 million have a pet
snake, iguana or turtle, according to the American Pet Products
Manufacturers Association. Some of the interest comes from people who live
in apartments or those with allergies to dogs and cats.
Particularly unusual animals, however, are attention getters and status
symbols.
The fascination with exotic pets perhaps is most apparent at the more than
400 wild pet expos held around the country each year.
Typical of those gatherings is the Atlanta Reptile and Exotic Pet Show, held
last month at the Gwinnett Gwinnett Civic & Cultural Center. Scores of
visitors paid $7 apiece to get in, then stood in line at booth after booth
to buy exotic pets.
A Brazilian rainbow boa, $175. A Goliath bird-eating tarantula, $100. A
Bengal cat kitten, $400. A Moluccan cockatoo, $1,500. Emerald tree boa,
$275. African spur-thigh tortoise, $225.
Authorities say Chye and other global wildlife dealers are regulars at some
of the bigger shows, making valuable contacts and deals there. Most dealers
are believed to be operating legally.
Most of the animals they offer for sale were likely bred legally in
captivity, which authorities say avoids harm to wild populations -- but not
in every case.
The animals may have been snatched illegally from the wild, a cheaper source
of inventory for dealers.
The problem is determining if an animal is captive-bred or smuggled.
"Once an animal is smuggled in, it's difficult to determine if it's legal or
illegal," says Tom Watts-Fitzgerald, a U.S. attorney who prosecutes
smuggling cases in Miami. "Dealers claim their animals are captive-bred and
legal.
"But if you go to a pet show or a store to buy an exotic pet, you really
have no foolproof way of knowing if it's legal or not."
______________________________________________________________________________
shanghaitan
New Member
Hi bro drifter, thanks for your reply.
Like I said previously, I'm not buying as family will scream at me if I start raring such pets again. But I just love to go pets shops and see all these interesting pets. Want to introduce them to my kid as well so their concept of pets will not be confined to just plain old cats and dogs (so boring right?)
I remember getting so excited when I saw hedgehogs in a pasar malam in Malaysia. Also went Thailand chatuchak market. So interesting and they look so cool! Too bad we can't legally breed or have them as pet here in Singapore and I have no intention to break any laws lah. Singaporeans mah... Hahahaha... Just follow law of country lor.
Oh well... Cannot own so feast eyes and imaginations lor.. Better than nothing right? No fish prawn also good mentality. Hehe!
Anyway, cheers and good health/wealth to you!
need strong basking light for it same as sungazer
How strong? 120- 240? Their diet must only be fire ants right?
bro shanghaitan , exotic pets have been around usa , eroupe , japan , taiwan , hongkong , thai ..ect for years ..singapore should open up cause the exotic pets market is making money , since goverment love money and love to tax so much they should allow exotic pets sale in singapore . not all exotic pets are endangered ..many are captive breed .so i think the only way to safe those endanger animals is to allow ppl to keep it ..when theres demand , ppl will start breeding them... in that way they wont extinct . and furthermore singapore weather is good for breeding exotic pets ..unlike japan we have to use heater during the cold winter . bro, all the best to you too .
sugar glider
use mercury vapour bulb from Zoo Med Power Sun UV 100 & 160 watt . not really their diet must be fire ants cause captive breed how to get fire ants just cricket will do . same as darts frog , in the wild they eat ants and termites but captive breed we feed them pinheads
hahahahha..i see .
What how much?
for you i give you discount ...after discount is 2k
I give u direct my cost price @ 1000 per piece, golden colour rare breed, delivery included to your door step, ai Mai? Offer ending soon and orders are filling up.
Last edited:
whahahahhaah ...but at that price must get at least 10pairs sibo ? my friend shop in lucky plaza need salesman you already pass the test
Sunday August 29, 2010
Boas, vipers and mata-mata turtle among smuggler’s loot
By TEH ENG HOCK
[email protected]
mata-mata turtle
PETALING JAYA: The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Per_hilitan) has confirmed detaining international wildlife trader Anson Wong at the KL International Airport (KLIA) on Aug 26. Wong’s luggage broke on the conveyor belt and, upon inspection by Malaysia Airlines personnel, many snakes and a turtle were found, the department said in a press statement yesterday. Perhilitan was then contacted and officers found 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a mata-mata turtle.
The statement said Wong would be remanded until Aug 31 to facilitate investigation. It is learnt that he was on transit from Penang to Jakarta when he was caught. He has a record for wildlife trafficking and was jailed in the United States for 71 months in 2000. The statement added that the boa constrictor was listed in Appendix II of the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 and Wong could be fined a maximum of RM100,000 for each animal or imprisoned up to seven years or both.
Wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC and World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia want the authorities to probe Wong for trading illegally in wildlife. Commending the authorities on the arrest of Wong, they urged Malaysia to strictly enforce the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008, a legislation that regulates international trade of wild animals and plants.
“This matter cannot be taken lightly. Malaysia must rise to the challenge to rival those fearlessly involved in wildlife smuggling. “Their attempt at mocking Malaysia’s legal system must be dealt with head-on. “There is no excuse to be lax on a criminal offence of any nature,” said TRAFFIC South_east Asia senior programme officer Kanitha Krishnasamy.
WWF Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysious Sharma said that as a convicted wildlife smuggler, Wong should be given the maximum penalty under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) Act, including revoking all his permits to trade wildlife if found guilty. “We look forward to the Wildlife Department and the Malaysian judiciary working together to prosecute this offender to the full extent of the law,” he said.
-------------------------------------------------------
Published: Monday September 6, 2010 MYT 12:42:00 PM
Updated: Monday September 6, 2010 MYT 1:05:06 PM
Anson Wong jailed 6 mths, fined RM190,000 for illegal snake export
By YUEN MEI KENG
SEPANG: The Sessions Court on Monday sentenced businessman Anson Wong to six months jail and fined him RM190,000 for illegally exporting 95 boa constrictor snakes. His jail sentence starts Monday. When questioned by Judge Zulhelmy Hasan, Wong, 52, said he did not have an export permit because his customer had insisted on having the snakes before Hari Raya.
Defence counsel M.Sivam applied to the court for the return of Wong's laptop and handphone but the judge rejected the application. Senior legal adviser for the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, Faridz Gohim Abdullah told the court that the laptop contained information about alleged related illegal activities.
Wong is believed to be an international wildlife trader. On Wednesday, Anson Wong, whose real name is Wong Keng Liang, admitted to exporting 95 Boa Constrictor - which is endangered species - without permit at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 8.50pm on Aug 26. The snakes were found in a luggage bag while Wong was in transit from Penang to Jakarta.
The Star had reported in February that Wong had been linked to a Dec 15 seizure in the United States of various types of animals from an exotic animal outlet. Two of the trader’s companies were found to have been supplying animals to the outlet.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) had claimed that CBS Wildlife and Sungai Rusa Wildlife, both owned by Wong, were supplying various types of animals and wildlife to US Global Exotics (USGE). Wong pleaded guilty to trafficking in wildlife in the US and was sentenced to 71 months jail in 2000.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday September 7, 2010
Lizard King jailed, Penang wildlife dept head transferred
SEPANG: Always elusive, wildlife trafficker Anson Wong — described as the “Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade” — was jailed six months and fined a total of RM190,000 for smuggling 95 snakes without a permit. The Lizard King, as he is known in the United States, was caught at the KL International Airport on Aug 26 while trying to smuggle boa constrictors without a permit to Jakarta.
He pleaded guilty to committing the offence. This is the first time the 52-year-old Penangite has been sentenced in Malaysia. He was arrested and prosecuted in the Uni_ted States in June 2001, when he was handed a 71-month jail term and fined US$60,000 (RM187,000) for wildlife trafficking.
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Tuesday September 7, 2010
Penang wildlife dept boss transferred
PETALING JAYA: Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said his ministry would appeal and seek a tougher penalty against international wildlife trafficker Anson Wong. “I believe Wong got off lightly. “My ministry will appeal for an appropriate penalty for a man who has a clear conviction record abroad,” he told The Star, adding that he would soon meet NGOs to eradicate loopholes in traffic enforcement.
In George Town, news of the transfer of the Penang National Park and Wildlife Department director to another state effective on Oct 1 became a hot topic among the employees of the state office. Uggah confirmed that the director would be transferred to Terengganu but he declined to elaborate on the reasons to transfer the director. A Wildlife Department official said the news came as a surprise to staff in the office yesterday morning.
“Everyone was puzzled as to why he should be transferred at such short notice,” said the official. “The director will be on holiday during Hari Raya and will continue with his leave prior to the transfer.” The director was posted to Penang in 2006 when he was promoted to the post of state National Park director. Prior to that he was a senior officer at the department’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
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Snake Smuggler Jailed Over Boas In Baggage
5:09pm Monday September 06, 2010
Andy Winter
A notorious wildlife trafficker has been caught trying to smuggle nearly 100 live boa constrictors into Indonesia after his bag broke at an airport.
The snakes were found in Anson Wong's bag
Malaysian Anson Wong - nicknamed the Lizard King - was stopped by security officials at Kuala Lumpur airport after his luggage split open on a conveyer belt. As well as 95 live endangered boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle were also found inside his bag. Wong has now been jailed for six months and fined £40,000 - but campaigners have denounced the sentence as a "tragedy".
Two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle were also discovered
The 52-year-old could have been locked up for seven years and faced fines of £40,000 per snake. He has already served a 71-month prison term in the United States for trafficking wildlife. William Schaedla of Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring organisation, said: "(The sentence) clearly tells wildlife traffickers that they have little to fear from Malaysian law. "This is a tragedy."
Published: Wednesday September 8, 2010 MYT 10:20:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday September 8, 2010 MYT 10:26:22 AM
Appeal filed against Anson Wong's sentence
BY LOURDES CHARLES
PETALING JAYA: The Attorney-General's Chambers has filed an appeal against the sentenced meted out to "Lizard King" Anson Wong for smuggling snakes. The appeal is seeking for a heavier sentence against Wong, who was jailed six months and fined a total of RM190,000 by the Sepang Sessions Court for smuggling 95 snakes without a permit.
This is the first time the 52-year-old Penangite, who was caught at the KL International Airport on Aug 26 while trying to smuggle the boa constrictors to Jakarta, has been sentenced in Malaysia. Various conservation groups had expressed disappointment with the sentence, saying that Malaysia shoudl show that it was serious in tackling wildlife trafficking.
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Wednesday September 8, 2010
Wildlife trade is still roaring
By YUEN MEIKENG
[email protected]
PETALING JAYA: Wildlife trafficker Anson Wong may be behind bars, but an animal collector claims several pet shops in the Klang Valley are still receiving their supply from sources related to him. Nicholas Lee (not his real name), who has a collection of over 50 exotic pets, claimed that a pet shop owner told him that its supply of wild animals would not be cut off although Wong had been sentenced to six months in jail.
“In my years of collecting exotic animals, the pet shops that I frequent told me they received their supplies from Penang. “It is a fact that there is only one wildlife supplier in Penang – Anson Wong,” said the 33-year-old, who started his hobby by keeping a few iguanas when he was in Form Four. Lee, a marketing manager, said his pets were obtained legally and he had licences for each of them.
Slimy smuggler: Wong being led away from the Sepang Sessions Court on Monday. (Inset) The snakes found in his luggage.
His exotic collection includes snakes, frogs, lizards and tarantula spiders. Lee said wildlife collectors kept such animals because it was fascinating to see how they grew and behaved. On Monday, Wong — described as the ‘’Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade’’ — was jailed six months and fined a total of RM190,000 for smuggling 95 snakes without a permit.
Wong was caught at the KL International Airport on Aug 26 while trying to smuggle boa constrictors without a permit to Jakarta. He pleaded guilty to the offence. Natural Resources and Envi_ronment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said his ministry would appeal and seek a tougher penalty against Wong as he believed the wildlife trafficker got off lightly.
The ministry’s senior legal adviser, Faridz Gohim Abdullah, who acted for the prosecution in Wong’s case, said the ministry should file their appeal within 14 days after the date of sentencing. “However, this matter is now being handled by the Attorney-General’s Chambers,” he said. Wong’s lawyer, M. Sivam, said he had yet to receive instructions from his client to appeal against his sentence.
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Wednesday September 8, 2010
A tame punishment
WE had a chance to severely punish a notorious wildlife trader and send a signal that we mean business in repairing our unwelcome reputation as an international hub for this illegal trade. But we blew it. The penalty meted out by the courts to Anson Wong is a mere slap on the wrist, and reflects our inability to get tough with wildlife criminals.
When enacted, the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 had drawn applause for its harsh penalties: a whopping maximum fine of RM100,000for each animal smuggled. Unfortunately, Wong was fined only RM2,000 for each of the 95 boa constrictors stuffed into his suitcase. So he got away with a RM190,000 fine – an amount which the businessman could easily cough out – instead of what could have been a deterrent penalty of close to RM1mil.
The fines pale in comparison with the market price of boa constrictors of between RM200 and RM4,000 each on the Internet. His jail term of six months is also disappointing as the Act provides for a maximum of seven years. Paltry penalties have always been a scourge in the war against wildlife trafficking. The newly implemented Act is meant to overcome this. But when it comes to sentencing, the ball is in the court of the presiding judge.
And it appears the seriousness of wildlife crime is not being fully appreciated despite the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network and the Federal Courts of Malaysia holding a two-day workshop specifically for the judiciary last year. Wong had an import permit to bring the snakes into Penang but not re-export permits to Indonesia. So he was caught on a technicality. But closer scrutiny reveals unanswered questions. Isn’t it illegal to pack live animals into checked-in luggage under International Air Transport
Association rules, not to mention endanger the lives of passengers? And what about the fact that Wong has a previous conviction in the United States, which landed him 71 months in jail and fined US$60,000 (RM187,000). The man who has earned the monikers “Asian wildlife kingpin” and “Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade” also had two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle in his bag but there was no case here as these are not trade-regulated species.
Also, the charge against Wong did not specify the sub-species of boa constrictors. All boa constrictors, except for one sub-species, come under Appendix II of the Conven-tion on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites); this means they can be traded, but with permits. Only an expert can differentiate between the sub-species, so what if Wong’s boa constrictors were actually the Appendix I sub-species, the Boa constrictor occidentalis, which is banned from trade?
Perhilitan (Wildlife and National Parks Department) could have built a stronger case if it knew for sure. And did Perhilitan investigate the source of the boa constrictors? Were they really captive-bred as claimed by Wong, and not wild-caught? Dealers routinely use the description “captive-bred” in order to obtain permits, so there could be another offence here.
Yet another unanswered question is why a convicted wildlife trafficker still holds permits to keep and trade in endangered animals. Perhilitan should immediately revoke all licences issued to Wong. For sure, Wong’s “bag act” is not the first. Wildlife crime investigators say stuffing animals in luggage is the smugglers’ preferred modus operandi, along with concealment in shipments of legally approved animals.
Unlike birds which can be noisy, reptiles are usually not drugged when packed into bags. But the animals will surely show up in airport X-ray scanners. So how did Wong’s bag get through the Penang airport security? We need to ask ourselves: Should we condone the trading and keeping of wild animals? Or is it too much to expect Malaysians to care? On the whole, we don’t particularly treat domesticated animals well, so what more creatures of the wild.
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