(MY) saved only to end up in cooking pots and more

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Editorial: Snakes alive! - New Straits Times

10 Mar 2007

 

 

IT'S an ophidian irony: 2,400 rat snakes, worth perhaps RM240,000,

seized at Penang's Batu Maung cargo complex and saved from cooking

pots and snakeskin products manufacturers in Hong Kong and China, only

to end up skinned and cooked anyway — only this time legitimately, by

licensed local snake merchants.

 

The fate of this illicit consignment of Ptyas mucosus, believed

smuggled in from Thailand through Penang en route to points northeast,

reveals a problem in the protocols of conventions against the illegal

trade of wildlife: What's to be done with the creatures seized?

 

Logic would dictate that these animals be returned to their points of

origin and released into the habitats from whence they came, but there

are no set procedures for this. This particular batch of smuggled

snakes is believed to have originated in Thailand but the illegality

of their transport makes establishing their provenance no easy task.

While such tangles are sorted out, the animals have to be kept and

cared for, a job that would fall to the already over-burdened Wildlife

Department.

 

Neither is it advisable to simply cart the reptiles off to the nearest

patch of wilderness and set them free. Ecosystems, especially in such

famously biodiverse regions as ours, constitute delicate balances of

species. Dumping a few thousand voracious carnivores into any

wilderness area could spell catastrophe for a host of other small

animals. In Sri Lanka, where rat snakes are abundant, they are touted

as an efficient form of natural pest control. In Peninsular Malaysia,

where they are not so common, a sudden influx of large numbers of

these serpents may mean dire consequences for frogs, squirrels,

lizards and birds, with possibly deleterious effects on local

ecosystems and poultry-rearers.

 

Far easier to auction off the seized animals to licensed dealers for

the legitimate snake trade. Even the Convention on the International

Trade in Endangered Species evinces some realism in respect of the rat

snake: Indonesia was recently granted permission to export more than

100,000 rat snake skins culled before Ptyas mucosus was designated a

protected but not endangered species.

 

Such considerations will likely not be uppermost in the minds of those

relishing the prospective availability of snakemeat soup, snake-blood

tonics and snakeskin belts in the local market, but it does mean that

collaring animal smugglers may not be of much immediate benefit to the

hapless animals themselves.

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Under watch but tannery owner blinded by greed - New Straits Times

10 Mar 2007

Shahrum Sayuthi

 

TEMERLOH: For two weeks, a tannery owner in Jaya Gading, Kuantan,

could only see the ringgit sign as workers unloaded monitor lizards

and snakes for illegal export to China and Hong Kong.

 

After all, monitor lizards and snakes fetch between RM150 and RM200

per kilogramme in China and Hong Kong.

 

He failed to notice enforcement officers from the State Wildlife and

National Parks Department who had staked out his premises after coming

to know of the matter.

 

About 4.30pm yesterday, the officers raided the tannery and arrested

him and another man.

 

The officers were shocked to find 748 clouded monitor lizards, 231

oriental rat snakes and four king cobras ready for " export " .

 

Also confiscated were 800 grammes of pangolin bones and scales meant

for the local traditional medicine market.

 

The duo, remanded at the Kuantan police headquarters, face an array of

charges including being in possession of protected animals and

inhumane treatment of animals.

 

The animals are believed to have been bought from Orang Asli poachers.

 

The seizure comes in the wake of similar cases in Perlis, Kelantan and Penang.

 

State Wildlife and National Parks Department director Inche Ali Che

Aman said the laws against poachers and animal smugglers were too

lenient and had contributed to the continuous hunting of endangered

animals.

 

" Punishment under present laws is hardly a deterrent as wildlife

poaching and smuggling is a very lucrative business, " he said.

 

The maximum punishment for the offences is a fine not exceeding

RM3,000 and jail of not more than three years.

 

" These people can pay the fine and the jail term is not too long. "

 

Inche Ali said the department was also investigating the possibility

of a syndicate running a network between illegal animal traders in the

country.

 

" We are trying to connect the case here with several others in other

parts of the country, " he said.

 

 

Meanwhile, initial investigations by the Wildlife and National Parks

Department in Kuala Lumpur showed that this seizure could be connected

to the recent attempt to smuggle 2,400 snakes out of Penang.

 

The people involved in both cases could have been supplied by the same

smuggler, said enforcement division deputy director Celescoriano

Razond.

 

" We think the supplier is one of the biggest smugglers operating in

Pahang. The smugglers may have split their illegal haul of wildlife

and tried to sell it through different routes. "