(IN): PFA & PETA-India activists rescue rare madagascar lemurs

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Rare Madagascar lemurs rescued in Dahanu

Baljeet Parmar

Saturday, November 24, 2007 03:56 IST

 

 

Illegal animal trade, carried out through websites, also offered

exotic dog breeds for air delivery

 

MUMBAI: In an operation lasting over eight hours, customs, forest and

wildlife officials rescued two mouse lemurs, 33 dogs and seven puppies

from two persons allegedly involved in illegal pet trade. Their

premises in Dahanu, near Mumbai, were raided on Thursday night.

 

Talking to DNA from New Delhi, People for Animals activist Maneka

Gandhi, who played a key role in the raid, said that animal lovers

from Mumbai had informed her about the illegal trade in endangered

species being conducted through the internet. Traders were offering

animals of various breeds to any one, anywhere in the country — at a

big price.

 

" They even offered chihuahua pups straight from Thailand and delivered

the same within 24 hours. We created four dummy buyers in Mumbai, Pune

and Delhi and contacted the duo on their web domain. When the deals

were finalised, we informed activists from People for Ethical

Treatment to Animals (Peta) in Mumbai, " Gandhi added.

 

" As cases of smuggling in endangered species are covered under the

Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) we

contacted the customs officials at Dahanu. The lemurs were handed over

to the forest authorities at Thane, " said Peta activist Jaisimha.

 

Customs officials have detained the duo, named Feroze and Mellissa,

for further questioning. " Preliminary investigations revealed the duo

had no import licence or sales tax number to deal in animals, " said an

assistant commissioner of customs.

 

" The rare monkeys are found only in the jungles of Madagascar and

there are just a few hundred of them left. The dogs found at the

premises included rottweilers, basset hounds, weimaraners, cocker

spaniels and Yorkshire terriers, " customs sources said.

 

One of the documents, called `Kijiji', had been removed from the

website. Two documents called India grid 1 and India grid 2 still show

the lemurs for sale. The website says they can air cargo dogs anywhere

in the world within seven days. The duo's own website is

dogsdomainindia.com.