animal trafficking

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In 'Largest Ever' Effort, 1K Trafficked Animals Head Home

Endangered lemurs, tortoises are being sent back to Madagascar from Thailand in anti-trafficking bust

(Newser) - Nearly 1,000 "highly endangered" animals are heading back home to Madagascar, thanks to what CNN calls the "largest ever" repatriation initiative between the African nation and Thailand. The news outlet reports that an anti-trafficking police raid in May in the Thai province of Chumphon turned up 1,...

Smuggling of Rare Butterflies Doesn't End Well for NY Man

Long Island man who labeled rare insects as 'wall decorations' pleads guilty

(Newser) - A Long Island man has pleaded guilty to illegally trafficking bird-wing butterflies and other rare insects, according to a plea deal filed in Brooklyn federal court. Charles Limmer, 75, of Commack, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to smuggle wildlife into the country and agreed to pay a $30,...

Interpol's Animal Trafficking Crackdown Sees Big Results

Operation Thunder sees primates, big cats, ivory, rhino horns, and more confiscated in 133 countries

(Newser) - Interpol and the World Customs Organization said Tuesday they seized 53 primates, four big cats, and more than 1,300 birds, as well as some 660 pounds of ivory, thousands of turtle eggs, and rhino horns, leopard skins, and lion teeth and paws in their sweeping annual crackdown on wildlife...

Pair Accused of Trafficking Sea Cucumbers Could Get 25 Years

Zunyu Zhao, Xionwei Xiao plead guilty to illegal importation of endangered species worth $10K

(Newser) - Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty this week in federal court in California to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers—which are prized in China for food and medicine and as a reputed aphrodisiac—from Mexico. Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao were charged with conspiracy and illegal importation of brown sea cucumbers worth...

6 Lions Dead, Mutilated in Uganda Wildlife Park

Dead vultures suggest how it happened

(Newser) - Six dead lions were found in a renowned African wildlife park and officials say there are clues it was foul play. Per NPR , the Uganda Wildlife Authority said in a statement that the animals were discovered Friday in Queen Elizabeth National Park with their body parts missing and dead scavengers...

Sale of Giraffe Parts Is a Booming US Business

Humane Society looks into the trade, which is fully legal

(Newser) - It's been dubbed a " silent extinction ." The global giraffe population is estimated to have fallen by a third from 1985 to 2016, largely as a result of habitat loss and poaching. But Americans' desire for giraffe parts—skulls, hides, whole feet—isn’t helping, per a Humane...

$100K Project Uses 3-Foot Rats to Sniff Out Crime

It's not the first time their noses have been put to use

(Newser) - Giant African pouched rats that grow to three feet long can't see well, but their keen sense of smell has already made them indispensable in the hunt for anything from tuberculosis in humans to buried TNT in former war zones (they've already found 1,500 land mines in...

Guy Busted Raising 6 Tigers on Rooftop

He was only authorized to raise 2

(Newser) - A Thai man has been arrested and accused of illegally raising six tigers on top of an apartment building on Bangkok's outskirts after police busted a larger tiger-trafficking ring in the country. Environmental police acting on a tip found four adult and two juvenile tigers on a rusty caged...

Leopards, Monkeys, Bear Found in Airport Bags

Anti-trafficking officials tracked Dubai-bound carrier to Thai hub

(Newser) - Thai officials today nabbed a Dubai-bound man who was hauling “a virtual zoo” of endangered creatures around the Bangkok airport. When they opened his bags, they found a yawning bunch of sedated newborns: two leopards, two panthers, two macaque monkeys, and an Asiatic black bear, the AP reports. Anti-trafficking...

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