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The tide of exotic pets│The online wildlife trade turns Hong Kong into a smuggling transit station (Part 2)

2022-04-03T02:13:01.377Z


Wrapped in wet socks, with tape wrapped around the limbs and torso, the rare turtles were packed in suitcases and smuggled from all over the world to Hong Kong, and then shipped from Hong Kong to mainland China, Malaysia, etc.


Wrapped in wet socks, with tape wrapped around the limbs and torso, the rare turtles were packed in suitcases and smuggled from all over the world to Hong Kong, and then shipped from Hong Kong to mainland China, Malaysia, etc.

Although Hong Kong is an international trade center, it is stigmatized as a "transit station for wildlife smuggling" at the same time.


Globally, the illegal trade of wild animals and their products is the third largest smuggling industry after arms and drugs, with an annual smuggling volume of US$50 billion (about HK$400 billion).

With the popularity of the Internet and e-commerce, online wildlife trading has expanded, making wildlife smuggling more rampant.

In 2019, the ADM Capital Foundation, a non-profit organization focusing on environmental sustainability issues in Asia, released a report "Trading in Extinction", detailing Hong Kong's continuing role in the international illegal wildlife trade.

The report analyzed 107 smuggling cases related to Hong Kong in 18 countries around the world between 2013 and 2017 based on public information, and found that in more than half of the cases, Hong Kong was the last consignment port or transit point.

Between 2018 and 2019 alone, Hong Kong authorities seized a record-breaking 649 tonnes of rare and endangered wildlife species, involving more than 7,000 live animals.

The 12 endangered Malayan box turtles were intercepted by the Hong Kong government in 2010. It is believed that they were smuggled into mainland China through Hong Kong at that time. Due to the cruel handling of illegal wildlife trade and environmental problems in their transportation, they arrived at the rescue center of the park in poor health. bad.

(Photo provided by Kadoorie Farm)

Amanda Whitfort, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong Law School and an expert in criminal and environmental law who has studied local wildlife smuggling for many years, told Hong Kong 01: "Obviously, with the control of air travel into Hong Kong in recent months, this kind of It's been significantly reduced. But before these controls were in place, we sometimes saw suitcases with hundreds of turtles seized."

Due to the enthusiasm for rare turtles in the domestic pet market in mainland China and Hong Kong, high-priced and endangered turtle species such as plowshare, Indian star turtle, and spider turtle are common smuggled animals. Parrots are also among them

.

"You own a very expensive tortoise, and there may only be 100 of them left in the wild (for example)," Wei said. It's a good fact to brag about, and that's one of the purposes of collectors."

Gliders are often kept as pets.

(Visual China)

In recent years, researchers from Lingnan University in Hong Kong have conducted a 12-month monitoring of sea turtle transactions on two major online platforms (including social media and Internet forums) and Hong Kong's largest pet market. The largest trade, involving the largest number of protected species and sellers.

The report, published last year in the academic journal Biological Conservation, also pointed out that the low threshold for online sales allows many amateur sellers to participate in the illegal trade, driving the expansion of the online wildlife trade.

Strike on social media = "whack-a-mole"?

Wildlife conservation efforts around the world are facing this challenge.

Craig Tabor, a former special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intelligence unit, said:

Criminals in the US can communicate in real time with people in China, Tanzania and Indonesia and remain anonymous.

They use whatever platform is available, and they often adapt (communication) methods to evade detection, including switching terms and using code words.

In mainland China, WeChat, Taobao and Xianyu are all platforms for covert sales. In order to evade supervision,

traders use homophones, aliases, etc. to create secret phrases, such as "Xiong Ya" to refer to "Bear Tooth" and "Xiao Su" Refers to "Sulcata tortoise", "like", "white plastic", etc. to refer to "ivory",

etc.

Communicating with foreign chat software or niche communication software that burns after reading, reusing third-party payment platforms or even virtual currency to complete payments, these methods make it difficult to curb online trade.

Elsewhere, popular messaging apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram are the main channels for buying and selling.

Local animal protection organizations have joined forces with the above-mentioned platforms to carry out encirclement and suppression campaigns, including deleting posts and setting warnings in relevant search results, but they often have little effect. Some online experts even believe that the action of deleting posts is just a premature reminder to criminals that their actions have been discovered. The phenomenon of "whack-a-mole" actually hinders law enforcement agencies from searching for evidence.

The U.S. State Department held an event on wildlife smuggling in 2015. The picture shows the seized wildlife contraband.

(Getty)

The method of wrapping live turtles is cruel

In addition to mainstream e-commerce and social platforms, there are also a large number of unknown websites gathering exotic pet lovers.

Some local studies in Hong Kong have confirmed the existence of more niche social networking sites, through which many buyers conduct internal transactions, and "the number of these sites has always remained in the hundreds to thousands," Wei said.

Wild animals from exotic lands eventually change hands through layers, but the buyers who finally get them do not necessarily understand the complex and cruel smuggling chain behind exotic pets.

Unlike wild animal products that are edible, medicinal or decorative, live wild animals are obviously more difficult to smuggle, and it is difficult to ensure the survival of animals during the long transportation process, resulting in higher risk costs.

Smugglers often find ways to hide or disguise animals in order not to be seized at customs.

"They'll take a normal sock or stocking and wet them to keep some moisture and prevent the turtle's shell from drying out. After putting the turtle in the bottom of the sock, tie a knot (on the top of the sock)," Wei said. , When wrapping turtles, in

order to restrict their movement, turtles are often wrapped in tape around their limbs and torso.

However, problems with temperature control, lack of oxygen and starvation often lead to turtles dying in transit.

"Hong Kong Airport is a transit airport, and the process from arrival to departure from Hong Kong Airport is very fast, which is one of the reasons why Hong Kong is a major hub for wildlife smuggling." Wei Kaiwen said, assuming that the smugglers fly to Hong Kong from Africa, and then To China, Malaysia and other places, the transit time may only take a few hours. "In this way, these animals have a high probability of surviving, but many do not."

Because smaller turtles are easier to carry, they are targeted for smuggling.

(Getty)

Because smaller turtles are easier to carry, smugglers often bring turtles that are less than the size of a palm, juvenile turtles, which means these rare turtles have not yet produced young, so "(lost) every It's a nightmare for conservation."

In addition to turtles, lizards and other reptiles are often brought into Hong Kong in this way.

In international wildlife smuggling, it is not uncommon for some protected birds to be stuffed into water-pipe-like containers and arranged in rows.

Wei Kaiwen said that although such cases have not yet occurred in Hong Kong, considering that a large number of protected birds from the mainland have been found in the Hong Kong bird market, these animals are likely to be smuggled into Hong Kong in this way, but they have not been intercepted by customs.

The more endangered the more expensive

After all, huge profits drive the operation of the entire smuggling chain.

Wei Kaiwen pointed out that these wild animals often come from very poor countries, and local poachers may only "make a dollar or two" from them.

The person responsible for bringing the animals through the border also receives a small payment, while

the real money comes from those who control the entire smuggling process.

"They would sell the animals for $8,000 to $10,000, sometimes $20,000."

Among wild turtle lovers, the shell shape and pattern of these turtles from India and Africa are certainly a major factor in attracting buyers, but what really determines the value is their rarity. The value is also higher.

"Unfortunately, the more these animals go extinct, the more collectors want to own them," says Wee.

Officials from the National Parks Authority of Thailand carry a tiger out of its cage at Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, in June 2016.

Thai wildlife authorities raided a Buddhist temple where 137 tigers are kept after monks were charged with illegally breeding and selling endangered animals.

Despite objections from temple authorities, 40 of the 137 tigers were rescued from the country's notorious "Tiger Temple" on Tuesday.

(Getty)

Poor law enforcement

Although wildlife smuggling has become one of the most profitable smuggling industries in the world, in Hong Kong, which is a transit point for smuggling, wildlife smuggling was only listed as a serious crime under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance in August last year. The department can freeze assets, investigate money laundering and other related illegal activities.

In theory, this means that officials who have been trained can investigate, including high-level people involved in trade, or even people from other countries who orchestrate the entire smuggling operation, not just "running errands" in Hong Kong, Wei said. ' of the smugglers.

"But the problem is that in Hong Kong, it has been the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department that has been taking the lead in handling wildlife crime cases, and they have no training or experience in exercising the power to investigate organized and serious crime to track money in the laundering process. We

will not deal with customs and other wildlife enforcement officers around the world.”



Wei Kaiwen said that the AFCD has always been a regulatory agency and can prosecute cases such as illegal possession or sale of wild animals, but in more complex cases , cases involving a larger smuggling chain, but the AFCD does not have the investigative capacity: "We asked the (Security Bureau) why Customs is not involved in these wildlife cases. The answer was: because the environment department is responsible for wildlife crimes related policy. And they didn't ask us to help."

From hedgehogs to otters: poaching and smuggling in Southeast Asia under the "exotic pet tide" (Part 1) [Occupational Intelligence Bureau] The living environment of rare birds and beasts requires high requirements for exotic pet veterinarians: Many people do not know how to raise new coronary pneumonia ︱ EU plans to promote agreement to prevent future outbreaks Proposed ban on wild animal markets, wild animals repeatedly appear in urban areas and lure them back to their habitats as the key

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-04-03

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