The Illegal Wildlife Trade - China
A story by Paul Hilton - You only have to go down to Mong Kok in Hong Kong on any given day and see how big the trade is. Shop after shop of turtles, tortoises, reptiles and exotic birds on sale.
A pedestrain looks at turtles for sale in Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, China - The exotic pet trade is having devastating effects on wild populations of turtles, tortoises, lizards and frogs and threatening many species with extinction, with the ever increasing demand in China as pets and wild meat. 70 per-cent of the 90 Asian freshwater turtle and tortoise species are listed as threatened according to the IUCN Red list of The International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The wildlife trafficking trade is worth US$20 billion a year just behind the drug and arms trade and is run by global gang networks.
A bird market in Indonesia.
Singapore is the new hot spot for exotic birds - I have been documenting the wildlife trade extensively throughout the region for the last 20 years and the list of animals being traded is out of control. Monkeys, pangolins, bears, Spiders, snakes, lizards, freshwater turtles, tortoises, sea turtles and hundreds of bird species. Prices seem to be going up and up as species become harder to find.
Anyone for a pet slow loris ? ...... Why would anyone support this industry?
Turtles and tortoises are among the top traded animals in the region.
Sea turtles are being targeted for meat. Eggs are eaten as aphrodisiiac.
Pangolins are now being shipped from Africa to China as the South- east Asian populations have become depleted. The scales are used to treat liver ailments in TCM or traditional Chinese medicine.
Macaques are used for medical research and sold on the black market for the pet trade. An underground trade in live animals exists between Thailand, Indonesia, China and the USA where many are sold illegally to supply biomedical testing, theme parks and the pet trade.
A young osprey is kept at the back of a shop in Bali, to be sold on the black market.
Bears are still kept in crusher cages waiting to be drained of bile.
Snakes for soup and skins.
Frogs from Costa Rica sold for the pet trade. Wild caught animals are being exported as captive-bred with forged paperwork.
According to one restaurant worker people like to eat owls eye's first, as it helps to improve poor eyesight - Just last week in the Strait Times (Singapore's english newspaper) quoted Chris Shepherd, senior programme officer at TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network linked to WWF saying " It's getting worse, I have never seen it so bad and I have been doing this job for 18 years. As species get rarer, the prices goes up and they are more sought after. " He went on to say "There is a growing demand in Asia for pet reptiles and birds.This didn't use to be a issue but it's become very fashionable, as is eating wild meat such as owls and snakes."
Meet Anson Wong ‘The Kingpin’. Wong is one of the worlds most notorious wildlife traders. This is one of the best in-depth articles I have ever read on the subject of wildlife trafficing - please, visit Paul HILTON
Meet Anson Wong ‘The Kingpin’. Wong is one of the worlds most notorious wildlife traders. This is one of the best in-depth articles I have ever read on the subject of wildlife trafficing - please, visit Paul HILTON