Friday, October 30, 2009

Minor Among 22 Arrested In Wildlife Operation

October 30, 2009
Bernama.com

KUANTAN, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Twenty-two people, including a minor, were arrested by the Pahang Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) during a nine-day operation which ended yesterday.

Pahang Perhilitan director Khairiah Mohd Shariff said the department had solved 10 wildlife hunting cases with the arrests of the suspects, all males aged between 16 and 55.

"The teenager was arrested with six men for hunting mouse deer in the Kemasul jungle near Bentong last Saturday.

"They were nabbed when we stopped a four-wheel-drive vehicle at 5.20am near the jungle and saw them behaving in a suspicious manner," she told reporters here on Friday.

Following a search, she said, nine mouse deer and a skinned porcupine were found in the boot of their vehicle.

Khairiah said the department believed that the wildlife was to be sold to interested parties, besides for their own consumption.

A total of 18 mouse deer, four "burung wak-wak" (white-breasted waterhen), six loaded guns, four knives and 88 animal traps were seized in the nine-day operation mounted by 79 Perhilitan personnel, she said,

They were being investigated for attempting to smuggle fully protected species or hunting wildlife during the prohibited season, she added.

-- BERNAMA

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