Friday, January 29, 2010

Three men held by Perhilitan for peddling animals

January 29, 2010
By EDWARD RAJENDRA
Star

SHAH ALAM: The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) arrested three men for peddling wildlife on the Internet.

Selangor Perhilitan director Rahmat Topani said the three were a 23-year-old software technician, 30-year-old construction supervisor and a 28-year-old employee with an IT firm.

“Our enforcement officers went undercover, pretending to be agents or buyers interested in buying the animals,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

On Jan 23, department officials arrested the technician who had an oriental white-eye bird (zosterops palpebrosa) in a car at Taman Maluri in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

On the same day, they arrested the supervisor at his home in Bandar Baru Bangi and seized two white-rumped shama birds (copsychus malabaricus). Both were fined RM400 each.

On Jan 26, Perhilitan enforcement officers arrested the 28-year-old at AEON Bukit Tinggi car park in Klang and found two iguanas in the car he was driving.

They checked the man’s house and found a rare monitor lizard, cobra, python, a red-tailed boa constrictor and a Burmese python.

The man has been released on a RM2,000 police bail and is expected to be charged on Feb 25 under Section 68 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, which carries a fine of not more than RM3,000 or a three-year jail term.

Initial investigations revealed that the oriental white-eye was to be sold for RM160 while the common shama for RM400 each.

The rare clouded monitor lizard that originated from Papua New Guinea could fetch between RM7,000 and RM8,000.

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