Great letter from Sahabat Alam Malaysia

[Guest guest]

<http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Letters/20070716083510/Article>ht\

tp://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Letters/20070716083510/Article

 

New Straits Times

 

 

Wildlife Haul: Make smugglers pay dearly

 

<lettersBy : S. M. MOHD IDRIS, President, Sahabat

Alam Malaysia

 

 

THE Wildlife and National Parks Department's crime unit must be

congratulated for the biggest seizure of long-tailed macaques in

Pontian, Kluang.

 

Once again, macaques are making their way to dinner tables in what is

seen as a lucrative smuggling trade that shows little signs of easing off.

 

It is not just macaques but animals such as the common palm civet,

dusky leaf monkey, Malay weasel, wild boar and squirrels, which now

end up on dinner tables or for use as purported aphrodisiacs.

 

China has long been seen as a magnet for wildlife smuggling because

of its taste for exotic animals. Against this onslaught, wildlife is

basically defenceless.

 

What is most distressing is the revelation that the macaques were

also bound for laboratories in Holland.

 

Documentary evidence over the years have shown Malaysian macaques

subjected to gruesome experiments involving slow and agonising deaths

in laboratories. This led to a ban on monkey export in the mid

<http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Letters/20070716083510/Article/#>\

198<http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Letters/20070716083510/Article\

/#>0s.

 

 

How then are smugglers and traders able to cash in on the export of

these macaques for use in laboratories?

 

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) concludes that wildlife crime, including

international smuggling of endangered species, is on the rise due to

the combination of low risks, weak penalties and high profits.

 

Conservation efforts are being thwarted by poachers seeking wildlife

species, which can sell for several hundred dollars.

 

SAM believes the main problem here is a lack of investment in

wildlife law enforcement and the minimal punishment under wildlife

trade laws that do not act as a deterrent to these criminals.

 

SAM calls on the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to

do more to halt wildlife smuggling.

 

The three local men and the Indonesian in the macaque seizure must be

made to pay heavily for their smuggling activities.

 

On top of that, they should be further convicted for cruelty for

causing untold misery to the caged macaques, which resulted in their

resorting to cannibalism.

 

The Wildlife Department should have the resources to combat wildlife

crime. Losing the battle to save our wildlife will be catastrophic

for our already dwindling species.

 

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chairwoman

International Primate Protection League

PO Box 766

Summerville, SC 29484, USA

Phone - 843-871-2280, Fax- 843-871-7988

 

E-mail - smcgreal, Web: www.ippl.org

Working to Protect All Primates Since 1973

 

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly

making exciting discoveries. ~ AA Milne