Animal Poaching News, 2014 - No Animal Poaching

No Animal Poaching

Five individuals arrested in Mundalama over poaching

3/31/2015

Source: Newsfirst.lk

By Ariram Panchalingam

Five individuals engaged in poaching using illegal fishing equipment have been arrested off the Mundalama – Sinpadu coast.

The Police Media Unit stated that the suspects were arrested during a raid carried out near the Sinpadu coast. The suspects are at the ages of 19, 23, 27, 34 and 48.

The Police Media Unit added that the suspects will be produced before the Puttalam magistrate on Tuesday.

Two poachers sentenced

3/31/2015

Source: Odt.co.nz

The maximum penalties for poaching had increased to reflect the enormous interest in this type of offending and the possible risks that could flow from it, Judge Michael Crosbie told a man caught poaching on Matakanui Station last weekend.

Sharn Daniel Stewart (27), of Wanaka, appeared in the Alexandra District Court yesterday and admitted a charge laid under the Wild Animal Control Act, of hunting a deer and a boar on Matakanui Station at Omakau on March 21, without the landowner's permission.

The maximum penalty for the charge was two years in jail or a $100,000 fine.

Three others, a 31-year-old Wanaka man, and two Australian men, aged 29 and 30, faced the same charge. They were granted diversion by police.

Sergeant Ian Collin said poaching was increasing in Central Otago.

The defendant told his three friends he knew of a good deer-hunting area and arranged the hunting trip.

There was a small amount of Department of Conservation land next to the farm where the poaching took place but there were ''No Shooting'' signs on every gate the group had to open to gain access to the property, Sgt Collin said.

A deer and a boar were shot by the defendant's group.

That weekend, there was a children's hunting contest at Becks and several landowners and their children were hunting on the station.

Another hunter, who had permission to be on the property, saw the defendant's ute headlights and alerted the property owner.

Counsel for Stewart, Liam Collins, said the defendant disputed some facts in the summary.

Stewart said there were no signs on the route the men took on to the property and the men had shot the deer and boar earlier in the evening, before any of the children's hunting competitors were there.

The defendant was driving the vehicle, ''not the one pulling the trigger''.

Police sought forfeiture of Stewart's ute, but he needed the vehicle for his business, which supported his wife and child, Mr Collins said.

Stewart said he thought the property was Crown land.

Judge Crosbie said being the driver did not minimise the defendant's responsibility.

Permission to hunt was needed from the landowner as the illegal hunters had no idea who else might be on the land, or where stock was.

Stewart was sentenced to 120 hours' community work and there was an order for forfeiture of the firearm, and of a bow, arrows and a knife found in the vehicle.

The vehicle was not forfeited.

• Hugh John Shields (19), of Albert Town, fencer, was fined $500, court costs $130 and his gun was forfeited, after he pleaded guilty to hunting goats and deer on Beggs Creek Station on July 27, 2014, without permission.

Sgt Collin said the defendant, who was jointly charged with another man, had been spoken to by a hunter who was on the property at the same time.

The hunter had permission from the landowner.

When first approached, the defendant hid his gun in the bushes and denied hunting, but later surrendered his gun.

Shields told police he did not know whose land he was on.

Counsel Kieran Tohill said the defendant was shooting from a public road.

He had already incurred a ''significant penalty'', losing his $2000 gun, as the property owner rendered it un-useable.

Judge Crosbie accepted it was a ''one-off '' incident.

Jordan bans falcons from entering the Kingdom

3/31/2015

Source: Petra.gov.jo

Press Release

The Royal Society for Conservation of Nature (RSCN) has banned the entry of falcons into the Kingdom to prevent the hunting of wild species threatened with extinction.

According to a statement by the RSCN, the ban is in line with the enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting falconry and the possession, purchase, and sale of falcons inside the Kingdom.

"This ban came into effect after an agreement with the Minister of Agriculture, which was circulated by the Interior Minister to all concerned stakeholders in the national institutions and Gulf states embassies to inform their citizens," Chairman of the RSCN board of directors Khaled Irani said Tuesday in a statement.

The RSCN said it had conducted training workshops in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Customs Department, and the Royal Administration for Environmental Protection at most border crossings to apply the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which is an international convention on wildlife trade that helps ensure such trade does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild.

The RSCN is an independent non-profit non-governmental organization devoted to the conservation of Jordan's natural resources. It has been charged by the Government of Jordan with the protection of the Kingdom’s natural heritage.

The RSCN is one of the few voluntary organizations in the Middle East to be granted this kind of public service mandate. As a result of its pioneering conservation work, the society has achieved international recognition.

St. Cloud State professor arrested, accused of smuggling ivory, rhinoceros horn

3/31/2015

Source: Startribune.com

By Paul Mcenroe

St. Cloud instructor is first in state implicated in trade.

To his students at St. Cloud State University, Yiwei Zheng was merely a contemplative professor who lectured on Chinese religions and the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. He was popular on campus and had once served as president of the Association of Chinese Philosophers of North America.

But to federal wildlife agents who had been watching him for years, Zheng was a secretive dealer in Chinese antiquities who profited from an international black market for carved ivory and other rare objects.

On Tuesday morning, Zheng was arrested at a St. Cloud restaurant by agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accused of smuggling elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn out of the United States and into China from 2006 through at least 2011.

Zheng’s arrest followed the unsealing of a grand jury indictment that accuses him of violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act and international treaties protecting threatened wildlife. Later in the afternoon, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven E. Rau in federal court in St. Paul and was ordered to surrender his passport, then released on a $25,000 bond.

Zheng, a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Shanghai, China, has operated an online sales business out of his St. Cloud home called Crouching Dragon Antiques since 2010, according to court documents. Often using eBay as his marketing base, Zheng offered wildlife specimen parts and carved objects, describing them as made from “ox bone.”

But agents suspected they were actually made from carved elephant ivory that Zheng was smuggling to China, according to a federal search warrant.

The indictment says that Zheng also illegally imported specimens from endangered species into the U.S. from China and made false statements to agents about selling rhino horns.

Agents say at one point Zheng told them that he sold the horns to a man at a McDonald’s restaurant in St. Cloud, but in fact he illegally exported the horns to a co-conspirator in China, according to the indictment.

While the dollar value of the items was not disclosed Tuesday, federal agents said the amount was significant and that it is the first such case in Minnesota, sending a message that they are on the lookout for illegal international traders who profit from protected species.

“We take one person out and we get the benefit of deterrence,” said Patrick Lund, special agent in charge of the wildlife service’s St. Paul office.

“It’s not like a drug dealer where one is taken out and another steps in. It requires specialized knowledge, and you’ve got to know the trade.”

St. Cloud State spokesman Adam Hammer said Zheng, who has taught there since 1999, is expected to resume his classes this week and will be treated with due process pending the outcome of his court case.

Rampant poaching

Since 2011, federal agents have been conducting a national crackdown — Operation Crash — targeting traffickers in what they say is a multibillion-dollar international poaching network that is decimating iconic species in Africa and Asia.

The operation was given its name because “crash” is the term used to describe a herd of rhinos. Lund said Zheng’s case was developed independent of the national investigation.

Elephant ivory and rhino horn have been internationally regulated since 1976, with more than 173 countries signing a treaty to protect imperiled wildlife, fish and plants.

In the past five years, rampant poaching across Africa and Asia has led to skyrocketing prices in the international black market for ornamental carvings on the tusks and rhino horns, as well as for powdered horn that is reputed in some cultures to have medicinal purposes, ranging from fighting cancer to enhancing sexual potency in men.

The market is so lucrative that it has drawn organized crime groups that control poaching operations from the field to final sales — providing everything from weapons to GPS tracking systems to logistical support for smuggling tusks and horns across international networks. More....

Fishing bandits arrested in Sea Shepherd's 'Operation Icefish'

3/31/2015

Source: Theecologist.org

The first year of Sea Shepherd's campaign to close down illegal fishing operations in the Southern Ocean, dubbed 'Operation Icefish' has already led to the detention of two 'bandit' fishing vessels while a third is under pursuit.

A major blow has been dealt to illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean with the detention of the Nigerian flagged poaching Vessel, Viking, in Malaysia.

Held for violations of Malaysian maritime law, Malaysian authorities have indicated that the Viking will also be investigated for alleged illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing violations.

The vessel was detained with 18 crew on board; one Chilean, two Peruvian and 15 Indonesian citizens. The Captain of the vessel, whose nationality is unknown, has been arrested.

The Viking is one of the six remaining illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing vessels - which Sea Shepherd calls the 'Bandit 6' - that are known to target vulnerable toothfish in the waters surrounding Antarctica, and is the second vessel of the six that has been detained by authorities this month.

The Viking, like its five counterparts, has a long history of illegal fishing. In 2013, the vessel, then called Snake, was the first vessel to be issued with an Interpol Purple Notice for fishing-related violations following a petition from authorities in Norway.

The owners and operators of the vessel are suspected of violating national laws and regulations, as well as international conventions by engaging in fraud and fisheries-related crimes.

Sea Shepherd in hot pursuit of second bandit vessel

Meanwhile the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker is engaged in a record-breaking pursuit of the most notorious of the 'Bandit 6' vessels, the Thunder, which prior to it being stripped of its registration last week, was also flagged to Nigeria.

Peter Hammarstedt, Captain of the Bob Barker, said, "In May 2014, the Thunder was detained in Malaysia. Despite being found guilty of illegal fishing activity, the vessel was let off with a small fine and allowed to return to its illegal operations.

"Seven months later, my crew and I intercepted the Thunder on the Banzare Bank in Antarctica, again engaged in illegal fishing activity. These are seasoned, repeat offenders who will not be deterred by a slap on the wrist."

Captain Sid Chakravarty of the Sea Shepherd ship, Sam Simon, said, "Last week, Sea Shepherd reported the attempted suicide of an Indonesian crewmember on board the poaching vessel, Thunder.

"We have sought the advice of human rights experts who have indicated that the suicide attempt was all in likelihood directly related to the poor and exploitative conditions experienced on board that poaching vessel.

"In light of this, and the extensive body of information which indicates that a rampant slave trade underpins IUU fishing operations, we implore Malaysian authorities to speak to the 15 Indonesia crew on board the Viking, and to thoroughly investigate the likelihood that human rights violations have taken place."

Bandit Captain charged for false reporting of toothfish catch

Thai authorities have confirmed that the Captain of a third poaching vessel, the Kunlun - which was chased from its hunting grounds inside Australian waters by the Sea Shephed vessel Sam Simon in February - has been charged for falsely reporting its illegal catch of 182 tonnes of Antarctic toothfish as grouper.

Captain of the poaching vessel, Jose Alberto Zavaleta Salas, faces further charges for falsely reporting the ship's flag and registration.

The handler that received the fish, South Services Co Ltd, has also been charged for its role in illegally importing the fish into Thailand.

Captain Chakravarty has praised international policing organisation, Interpol, for their efforts in spearheading the investigations into the Viking, Thunder and Kunlun.

"All three of the vessels that are currently being investigated have been issued with Interpol Purple Notices. By doing so, the Environmental Crime Unit's Project Scale has set in motion the wheels to bring together international cooperation to tackle poaching in the Southern Ocean.

"Under their expertise, national investigators now have the chance to investigate fisheries crimes to bring about successful prosecutions of these vessels. From the waters of West Africa to the shores of Mauritius and now the ports of Thailand and Malaysia, Interpol is leading the proceedings to shut down these poachers."

A successful first season for Operation Icefish

The poaching vessels are the target of Sea Shepherd's first Southern Ocean Defence Campaign to target IUU fishing operators in the waters of Antarctica, Operation Icefish.

While Sea Shepherd applauds the detention of the Viking, the organisation is now appealing to Malaysian authorities to ensure that the owners and officers of the vessel are prosecuted, the vessel scrapped and its catch confiscated.

"The only way to ensure that the Viking does not return to pillage the Southern Ocean is for the vessel to be impounded, and for the operators and officers to be arrested for their crimes", said Sea Shepherd's Captain Peter Hammarstedt.

Navarra bans tail docking, ear cropping, declawing

3/31/2015

Source: Theanimalspost.com

Navarra has banned all amputations on animals “with purely cosmetic purposes or without utility,” including tail docking, ear cropping, debarking and declawing.

Navarra has now joined 6 other regions in Spain, Aragon, Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia and Murcia, who have already banned these type of procedures.

Veterinarians around the world agree that cosmetic amputations should be considered animal abuse. Dogs use their ears and tails to communicate with other animals and removing them may mean that other animals cannot read them and that can cause problems. Dogs communicate fear, aggression, joy and other basic feelings with their tails and ears and it’s abusive to deprive them of that right.

In addition, some dogs use their tails to swim better or for balance when running. Not to mention the cruelty of removing their vocal cords just so they “don’t disturb”.

Regarding cats, declawing is compared with cutting off our fingers by the first knuckle. According to PETA, cats without claws lose their famous balance and need to learn how to walk again. They use their claws to scratch, stretch and exercise. Some organizations also say that cats without claws end up having the opposite result as wanted, they become more aggressive because they feel insecure because now they’e not able to protect themselves if necessary.

UK makes another mockery of CITES trade agreement

3/31/2015

Source: Wildlifenews.co.uk

By Kevin Heath

The day after a court laughed at the seriousness of trading in endangered tiger parts by issuing a community service order to a tiger parts trader the police in the UK have joined in the mockery by giving a caution to an elephant feet trader.

A 47-year-old man from the Waltham Forest area has been given a police caution for trying to auction some stuffed elephant feet on Ebay. The police have not released the name and address of the offender.

The feet are now with the Wildlife Crime Unit and will be used as part of the unit’s educational learning program.

The decision to not even charge and prosecute the trader together with yesterday’s sentence demonstrates that officials in the UK have no interest in protecting endangered species and that authorities are just making a mockery of CITES regulations that are trying to protect endangered species from extinction.

The evidence is becoming clearer by the day – the British government is happy to take flights around the world telling other countries how they need to be boosting their efforts to combat the illegal trade in wildlife while at the same time laughing at offenders and letting them off at home in the UK.

It is quite clear that the next government will have a major take to undertake by getting the legal system in the UK to recognise that illegal wildlife trading is an industry that is not just putting some of the most iconic wildlife at risk but is also funding terrorism and murder around the world.

The contempt that the British authorities have for endangered species and lack of commitment to tackling the wildlife criminals is becoming evermore obvious.

Once the general election is over Wildlife News will be changing tact and rather than just reporting on news about wildlife and nature we will become a much more campaigning organisation in the UK. We want to play a more aggressive role in encouraging British politicians and officials to take wildlife crime here in the UK much more seriously rather than passing the buck onto other countries to deal with.

They say charity begins at home – so to does law enforcement and tackling wildlife crime.

Peruvian soldier sparks outrage after uploading picture of him posing with an injured dog

3/31/2015

Source: Theanimalspost.com

The photo of a Peruvian soldier holding a wounded dog has gone viral on social networks causing outrage to thousands.

Jorge Elvis Valenzuela Huamán took the photo in October last year. He had stabbed the little dog with the knife pictured in the image inside an establishment of the Peruvian army and then decided to capture the moment which he seemed very proud of and upload the image to Facebook.

Killing dogs is a common practice in the Peruvian militia which is done regularly as part of an exercise to desensitize soldiers and turn them into killing machines.

Valenzuela Huamán, from Chanchamayo, did not take very well the hundreds of comments he received in the past couple of weeks on his Facebook page and began to respond violently to the comments and to defend himself by saying that this was his “test of courage”.

Three arrested for poaching tiger cub in Madhya Pradesh's deputy speaker's farm

3/30/2015

Source: Economictimes.Indiatimes.com

By P. Naveen

BHOPAL: A day after a male tiger cub was killed by poachers inside the farm owned by deputy speaker of Madhya Pradesh Assembly Rajendra Singh, state forest officials have arrested three people including farm's caretaker Kundan Sahu.

Two others were identified as Baiga tribal -- Ram Prasad Baiga and Jamuna Baiga.

Forest officials have recovered two more deadly GI-wire traps from the farm during search.

According to state's chief wildlife warden Narendra Kumar the accused have confessed laying trap was laid by them, but for poaching wild boars and other herbivores wild animals.

Spread over 50 acres Singh's farmhouse house is located in buffer zone of Bandhavgarh National Tiger Reserve in Umaria district.

He had held industry portfolio in the Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government.

The carcass of the cub, aged less than one year, was found inside the farm, its neck trapped in a snare made of GI wire.

It probably died more than 30 hours before the carcass was found. Its mother and another sibling were lured back to the park by forest guards.

Sahu was taken into custody from his house in Baansa after a Preliminary Offence Report was registered.

A sniffer dog squad that was called for investigation reached Sahu's house, less than a kilometer from where the carcass was recovered on Sunday, said sources.

Singh who initially feigned ignorance on involvement of his caretaker Kundan Sahu told TOI that he would cooperate in with the investigators and has no objections if government wants to acquire his farm.

He said the land was bought three decades ago. "We were not using it even for even agriculture activity. I have only been there for 2-3 times in past 20 years and," Rajendra Singh told TOI.

Singh said it was Sahoo Sahu who used to inform forest officials about any tiger movements in the locality. "Government should conduct a thorough enquiry into the issue" he added.

Rhino kills woman, injures four others in market in Nepal

3/30/2015

Source: Scmp.com

A one-horned rhino killed a woman and injured four other people after it strayed from a protected area and entered a busy marketplace in central Nepal yesterday, police said.

The rhino travelled some 15km from the famed Chitwan National Park to Hetauda town, which located about 50km southwest of the nation's capital, Kathmandu.

In Hetauda, it charged and trampled five people, including a 61-year-old woman who died from her injuries, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sishu Sharma said by phone from the town.

"The rhino first attacked and injured three people in the town before it entered Hetauda Hospital where it attacked and injured two more people," Sharma said.

The rhino was still there yesterday as the local authorities were waiting for the arrival of three trained elephants that will be used to guide the animal back to the national park.

One-horned rhinos are an endangered species. Nepal's protected areas are home to 534 of them. Nepal had achieved zero poaching in 2011 and 2013, leading to an increase in the number of rhinos and tigers.

During a 13-nation conference in Kathmandu last month that called for zero poaching and demand for animal parts, Nepalese conservationists raised concerns that communities living around protected areas may have become vulnerable with the rise in the wildlife population.

Bandhavgarh poaching: Caretaker of farmhouse owned by deputy speaker arrested

3/30/2015

Source: Indianexpress.com

By Milind Ghatwai

A day after the alleged killing of a male tiger cub in Bandhavgarh national park by poachers, the forest department on Monday took into custody the caretaker of the farm owned by deputy speaker of Madhya Pradesh Assembly Rajendra Singh.

Singh, a minister during the Congress regime, owns nearly 50 acre of land contiguous to the Tala range of the famous tiger reserve in Umaria district. The carcass of the cub, aged less than one year, was found inside the farm, its neck trapped in a snare made of GI wire.

While denying knowledge of any incident of poaching on his farm land or involvement of his caretaker Kundan Sahu, the deputy speaker said he would cooperate in with the investigators and would welcome any move by the government to acquire his farm land. He said he bought the land nearly three decades ago and does not use it even for even agriculture activity.

Sahu was taken into custody from his house in Baansa after a Preliminary Offence Report (POR) was registered. Park director C H Murlikrishna told The Indian Express that a dog squad called for investigation reached Sahu’s house, less than half a kilometer from where the carcass was recovered on Sunday. He said it’s possible that the snare was meant to catch a wild boar and the caretaker panicked after seeing the cub whose carcass was intact. The investigators are questioning Sahu to find out if he knew of the trap or the alleged poachers.

“I visit the farm land only once a year. It’s common for tigers to jump over the chain link fence, one of the tigresses even littered in the past. I am a conservationist myself and would not like to harm the big cat,” the former minister told The Indian Express. He said he spoke to Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar.

The cub had probably died more than 36 hours before the carcass was found. Its mother and another sibling were still in the private farm and had to be lured back to the park using a live bait. Singh’s farm also has a water source.

British tiger parts trader gets 120 hours community service

3/30/2015

Source: Wildlifenews.co.uk

By Kevin Heath

The British courts have again shown contempt for endangered species as a tiger parts trader – Catherine Emberton 29yrs, of Gleadless Road, Sheffield – was given a 120 hour community service order and forced to pay a £60 victim surcharge. Emberton had an international market via ebay in selling her jewellery that contained tiger claws and teeth. With just 3,000 tigers left in the wild her activities were in breach of international laws through the CITES treaty.

With British politicians, officals and even royals going around the world telling countries to tighten up on poaching and smuggling activities perhaps they should save the airfare and look closer to home and encourage the British courts to get serious about the impact of illegal wildlife trade on species.

Emberton’s lenient sentence comes despite His Honour Judge Moore at Sheffield Crown Court at an earlier hearing saying the she could face a custodial sentence. The maximum sentence for trading in tiger parts is 5 years in prison.

Emberton was caught after officers from the South Yorkshire Police and the National Wildlife Crime Unit investigated items being sold on Ebay. Emberton claimed that the jewellery she was shipping around the world was exempt from a permit requirement because her items used antique tiger parts.

The investigation though showed this to be false and the tiger parts she was using was covered by Appendix A of the CITES treaty. Many of the items of jewellery she was selling contained raw tiger bone set in metal.

On 9th June 2014 officers from NWCU and South Yorkshire Police executed a search warrant at Emberton’s home address. During the search officer found a silversmith’s work bench, jewellery making equipment, claws and teeth set in silver, 23 x raw claws and 10 x raw teeth.

Emberton was arrested and later charged with the prohibited sale, prohibited offering for sale and prohibited keeping for sale and Annex ‘A’ Species, namely tiger, contrary to the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997. The charges related to multiple sales (129) over an 18 months period and her possession of teeth and claws for sale on the day of the warrant.

Catherine Emberton was sentenced to 120hrs of unpaid work, a 12 month Community Service Order as well as being ordered to pay £60 victim surcharge and forfeiture of items seized.

Following the case investigating officer Andy McWilliam from the National Wildlife Crime Unit said, “Any person who chooses to trade in endangered species has a duty to know and comply with the law. The regulations are not an optional extra; they are there to protect species that are at risk. Some species, such as tiger are on the brink of extinction. People who offend run the risk of going to prison”.

Mozambique: 17 Rhino Horns Seized in Matola

3/30/2015

Source: AllAfrica.com

Maputo — The Mozambican police last week seized 17 rhinoceros horns in the neighbourhood of Tchumene, in the southern city of Matola, according to a report on the independent television station STV.

The horns were in a Toyota Land Cruiser which was supposedly being driven to the northern city of Pemba. They were hidden inside the lining of the vehicle's boot.

There were three people inside the vehicle when the police swooped. The driver, Chabane Abuchir, was wearing a T-shirt of the mobile phone company Movitel, and claimed to be a Movitel worker. There were 14 Movitel pre-paid cards in the Toyota, which the police believe were to have been offered as bribes.

Abuchir and his two companions, Cipriano Monteiro and Manuel Samuel, said they knew nothing about the rhino horns hidden in the boot.

Abuchir said some Vietnamese friends had brought him from Pemba to Maputo specifically to pick up the Toyota and drive it back to the north.

The police found a water bill in the car made out to the company Sociedade Wink Koon, Ltd., believed to be where the Vietnamese work.

The spokesperson for the Maputo Provincial Police Command, Emidio Mabunda, said efforts are under way to detain the Vietnamese owners of the car. “Right now we cannot say where the horns came from, and what was the final destination, but we have information that the vehicle crossed the Limpopo river before reaching Maputo”, he said.

Since the rhinoceros is extinct in southern Mozambique, it is more than likely that the 17 horns were hacked from the corpses of rhinos slaughtered in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

The problem for traffickers is moving the horns to Vietnam, where powdered rhino horn is used as a cure for everything from hangovers to cancer. Several recent attempts to smuggle horns through Maputo International Airport have been detected, and so the traffickers may have felt they would be more likely to evade detection if they used a northern airport such as Pemba.

Elephants help end habitat conflicts in Riau

3/30/2015

Source: TheJakartapost.com

By Rizal Harahap

The local government, NGOs and plantation companies are working together to train elephants in Riau, to put a stop to the many cases of animal-human conflicts in the area.

Last week, wild elephants trampled a man to death in Tasik Serai subdistrict, Pinggir district, Bengkalis regency.

“Being trampled to death by elephants is nothing new here. A man was killed by wild elephants in the 1980s,” the chairman of the Association of Nature Loving Youths (HIPPAM) Duri, Zul Husni Syukri, told The Jakarta Post recently.

According to him, the government appeared to have turned a blind eye to the matter, despite the human and financial losses involved.

Zul blamed the government for not taking good care of the wild elephants’ habitat.

Providing an example, he said that the 18,000-hectare Balai Raja wildlife reserve, home to some 27 wild elephants, had almost completely been turned into oil palm plantations, leaving only some 150 ha of bush remaining.

“When the forest is no longer there, where can the elephants go when they are herded away from people’s fields and homes?” Zul said.

Data from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia showed that human-elephant conflicts in Riau had killed 18 people and injured nine others, while since 2004, 147 wild elephants had been killed.

Given the high potential for human-elephant conflicts, in cooperation with the Riau Natural Resource Conservation Center (BBKSDA), the WWF-Indonesia’s Riau program has since 2004 attempted to mitigate the problem by establishing a so-called “flying squad” in Lubuk Kembang Bunga subdistrict, Ukui district, Pelalawan regency.

The team routinely patrols the Air Hitam and Lubuk Kembang Bunga subdistricts, two permanent routes of wild elephants and Sumatran tigers in Tesso Nilo.

“The flying squad’s presence proved to be effective in minimizing conflicts. No lives have been lost. So far, only plants have been destroyed when the elephants enter the villages without being detected,” said the squad’s coordinator, Ruswanto.

The team, he said, used carbide cannons to scare off wild elephants and herd them out of residential complexes. It used tame elephants for the same ends.

The biggest challenge, according to Ruswanto, was herding solitary adult male elephants, as they tended to take random routes, ending in conflicts.

He added that his team was also often deployed to protect wounded elephants.

Currently, according to Ruswanto, there were four flying squads in Tesso Nilo.

They excluded similar teams managed by PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), the Tesso Nilo Foundation and Asian Agri.

He also suggested the establishment of at least two other flying squads in Balai Raja and Giam Siak Kecil, Bengkalis regency, for wider coverage.

He said the most challenging factor in establishing such teams was the operational cost and salaries for elephant carers.

Support for the mitigation efforts using tame elephants has been expressed by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar.

“If the method is good and effective, make it a standard rule and guideline,” she said as she visited Pekanbaru on Saturday.

She also promised to review cases that claimed the lives of humans and elephants to see whether they had been triggered in conservation or concession areas.

“If they occurred in concession areas, then the trigger is company negligence. There must be problems with ecosystem spatial planning so that the concession cuts off wild elephants’ routes,” she said.

She said license reviews were also being conducted.

Other solutions, according to Siti, included rearranging the ecosystem, which had been a wildlife habitat.

She was confident that the main factor in elephants or tigers venturing out of their natural habitats was a lack of food.

She also asked concession holders to pay more attention to improving the management of their respective ecosystems.

“They should have mapped their areas. In a concession area, there must be wildlife regions that have to be maintained and should not be opened [up to conversion\,” she said.

Poachers kill tiger cub in Bandhavgarh

3/30/2015

Source: Indianexpress.com

By Milind Ghatwai

Bandhavgarh tiger reserve was alarmed on Sunday by an alleged incident of poaching of a male tiger cub aged seven to eight months.

The carcass was found on the border between a private property and the core area in the Tala range of the famous reserve. The property reportedly belongs to a former minister.

“It looks like a case of poaching and not a natural death,’’ PCCF (wildlife) Narendra Kumar told The Indian Express. He said the forest authorities have seized a trap and are investigating exactly where and how the alleged poaching took place.

Kumar said the alleged poachers don’t appear to be professionals who normally don’t leave the carcass behind.

The poachers probably laid the trap for some other animal but the cub was trapped.

Nitin Desai of the WPSI said the incident has brought to the fore the potent threat from local poachers who are active near protected areas for animal meat.

Elephant electrocuted in Guwahati cantonment

3/30/2015

Source: Indianexpress.com

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

A female elephant was killed due to electrocution last night inside the Army’s Narangi Cantonment that is part of Guwahati city, with forest officials confirming it to be a case of accident.

Guwahati-based Defence PRO Lt Col Suneet Newton said the female elephant was part of a herd of wild elephants that had on Saturday evening strayed out of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary that shares boundary with the cantonment, and was found lying dead in the 222 Advance Base Ordnance depot area on Sunday morning.

“Elephant movement was noticed in the 222 ABOD premises at around 7 PM on Saturday, following which all guard posts were alerted and asked to stop patrolling. While guards at Post No 5 heard a lot of noise made by the elephants at around 11 PM, the carcass of an elephant was found lying entangled to broken electric wires in the morning,” Guwahati-based defence PRO Lt Col Suneet Tandon said.

A team of forest officials which rushed to the spot on Sunday morning on examination found that the elephant – a female between 12 to 13 years of age – had died to electrocution. “It is an unfortunate incident of accidental electrocution. The elephant most probably tried to pull down branches of tree, getting electrocuted in the process,” Dibyadhar Gogoi, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Guwahati Wildlife Division, told The Indian Express.

“Straying of elephants out of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary has become common, and the attraction is more towards the Army cantonment because of presence of lot of greenery including tall grasses. Last year we had managed to save an elephant and her calf after the duo had fallen into a pond inside the Army cantonment,” Gogoi added. On Friday, elephants had pulled down portions of a boundary wall of the cantonment apart from damaging several hutments in a nearby village.

The 78.64 sq km Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary on the south-east fringes of Guwahati city comprises of three reserved forests – Amchang, South Amchang and Khanapara – and had recorded 47 elephants in the last count carried out in 2012. The wildlife sanctuary, which is also rich in forest birds and has a sizeable population of barking deer, sambar, leopards, cats and other wildlife, has been facing encroachment in the recent years.

Bowl of bird heads in Pocket area is the latest animal-mutilation discovery in Sacramento

3/30/2015

Source: Sacbee.com

By Sam Stanton

Sacramento officials reported anther animal mutilation case Monday, saying that a bowl full of pigeon heads and a rooster head with a bloody machete set atop the bowl was discovered in the Pocket area.

Gina Knepp, director of the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter, said the discovery was made at about 8 a.m. Sunday near Pocket Road and Windbridge Drive. Police were called to the scene.

In recent months, authorities have reported many discoveries of mutilated livestock and birds – including cattle, lambs and chickens – beheaded and dumped in different areas of the city. In some cases, the carcasses were accompanied by blood-soaked $1 bills or tea candles.

Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call Sacramento Animal Care Services, (916) 808-8333.

Zimbabwe: Buffalo Attack Kills Woman, Boy Aged 8 Seriously Injured

3/29/2015

Source: AllAfrica.com

A Chipinge woman died last week while an eight-year-old boy was seriously injured in separate attacks by two buffaloes which had strayed from Save Conservancy.

Police confirmed the incident which has left villagers in Mabuyaye under Chief Mutema in a state of panic.

Chipinge district police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Blessing Kadzuraumera said the now deceased Thandeka Nyora, 64, was attacked by the buffaloes while on her way to the local Mutema Irrigation Scheme.

Kadzuraumera said one of the buffaloes gored Nyora on the chest before they ran away towards Save River.

Nyora sustained severe injuries on the chest and was rushed to Birchenough bridge hospital.

Her condition deteriorated and was transferred to Mutare Provincial Hospital where she died. She has since been buried.

On the same day Nyora was gored, the buffaloes reportedly attacked Searchmore Zarura, 8, at Manesa village under Chief Mutema while playing outside the family homestead.

Zarura was left unconscious and sustained serious injuries on the buttock and on the right thigh.

He was rushed to Birchenough Bridge Hospital where he was admitted with his condition reported to be critical.

"We urge members of the public to report cases of stray animals to relevant authorities. They should not provoke them as they risk being attacked and injured," said Kadzuraumera.

An official from National Parks and Wildlife Management said they have dispatched rangers to track the animals.

Phuket beach club lambasted over 'party' elephant

3/28/2015

Source: ThePhuketnews.com

By Jean-Pierre Mestanza

Pictures of party goers riding and hanging out with a baby elephant at popular Phuket beach club, Nikki Beach, have drawn sharp criticism after they were posted online earlier this week. Now, the beach club has responded with a statement on Twitter.

The photos in question, which Nikki Beach have since taken down after they were posted on Facebook, were shared by the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand (WFFT) on social media which prompted a swarm of negative comments directed at the beach club.

Most of the comments lambast the beach club for animal rights abuse, since the baby elephant is seen walking on a narrow wooden bridg over a swimming pool with party goers on both sides in addition to pictures of tourists and models on top of the animal.

On Friday (March 27), Nikki Beach released a statement on Twitter that read: “Elephants are a highly respected and regarded symbol of Thailand. As a global company, Nikki beach respects every country's culture and traditions and as such, we fall into the normal behaviors in usage of elephants to represent their culture. We never intended to be disrespectful and/or offend anyone.”

Still, photos of the baby elephant continue to surface with one website, onegreenplanet.org, posting pictures of the animal seeming to help a man propose to his girlfriend and another where a model is riding the elephant.

Meanwhile, a Facebook group called "Boycott Cikki Beach 'Hotel' Phuket" has surfaced online with a several hundred "likes" already accumulated.

The WFFT originally posted the photos with this message: “Over the last 24 hours pictures of lavish parties with baby elephants and lots of drunk people have gone viral on Twitter and Facebook.

While on twitter a lively discussion went on, the resort in question 'Nikki Beach Phuket' quickly deleted all photos with the elephants, but we were able to save them before that happened.

Our question now is; What do you think of this? Do you think it is ok to use these young elephants for parties like this, is this legal and/or right? Do you too feel tourists should know better? We would love to hear your views so we can contact Nikki Beach and let them know your opinion. Please share!” Photos.

National bird peacock poached in Indore, 5 arrested

3/28/2015

Source: TimesofIndia.Indiatimes.com

By Anuraag Singh

INDORE: City police and state forest department arrested five men in a joint operation for allegedly poaching the national bird peacock in Betma area on Indore's outskirts on Friday late night.

Acting on a specific tip off by the forest department, a police team led by Betma police station in-charge Kamal Jain raided vacant land behind Annapurna Cold Storage on Betma-Indore Road and nabbed the five men. Carcass of the peacock and a licensed single barrel gun used to kill the national bird were also recovered, along with a live cartridge.

The five men who were caught by the police were identified as Nazar Mohammad, 70, Ashiq Khan, 33, Shahid Khan, 45, Mohd Kalam, 18 and Mohd Sohail, 19. They belonged to Betma, Indore and Mhow, said the Betma police station in-charge Kamal Jain on Saturday.

"We handed over the five men, the peacock carcass, the single barrel gun and two motorbikes to the forest department team for further action," added Jain.

Confirming the alleged poaching of the national bird, the forest department sub divisional officer RN Saxena told TOI that the five men have been arrested and booked under Sections 2, 3, 39 and 51 of The Wildlife Protection Act 1974. "We'll produce them before court later in the day to get their remand for detailed questioning," added Saxena.

According to Saxena, the five men were caught when they were planning to cook peacock meat while chapatis were ready for a late night party.

It's the second case of poaching of peacock in the last three weeks in Indore, as just 20 days back, the police had arrested a poultry farm owner for poaching a peacock in Lasudiya area of the city.

Two suspected rhino poachers killed at Lake Nakuru National Park

3/28/2015

Source: Standardmedia.co.ke

By Mercy Kahenda

Nakuru, Kenya: Two armed suspected rhino poachers were shot dead at Lake Nakuru National Park on Friday night by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers.

Assistant Director Central Rift Conservation Area George Nagwana said Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers on patrol trailed the poachers at the park around 10.30pm. Nagwana said the rangers were forced to shoot dead the poachers who were at the rhino range section after they failed to surrender. Rangers recovered a riffle with five rounds of ammunition, a knife, an axe, two loaves of bread and two bottles of soda. "The suspects believed to have been on a poaching mission were ambushed at the rhino range section, rangers on patrol forcefully shot them dead," said Nagwana.

Nakuru County Commissioner Mohamed Birik who went to the park after the incident commended rangers in their fight against poaching citing that, 'Linda Kifaru Initiative' launched last year has been a success in conservation of Rhinos. "Linda Kifaru Initiative formed last year through collaboration with members of the public, KWS Rangers, Kenya Police and Administration Police to contain the menace of poaching that was on the rise last year," Birik said. "We commend the good work our rangers are doing and hence measures have been put to boost their morale and welfare. We have specialized equipment's for them to patrol and work effectively," he added.

Last year, the park reported three incidences of poaching and one suspect was shot dead with two guns recovered at the park. Nagwana said enhancing policy measures have been put in place to curb poaching menace at the park including enhanced KWS rangers, detective machines and aerial surveillance airplane among others. "The plane stationed at the park provides aerial surveillance to curb poaching incidences mostly targeting endangered rhinos," he said. He added that KWS officers have also intensified operation to protect rhinos and other endangered species from illegal poachers.

The assistant director further asked locals to report any incidences of wildebeest poachers at the same time help in conservation of the park that is a source of employment and natural heritage that earns the country foreign exchange.

"Locals should help in conserving the park because when tourists visit the country, they spend in hotels around that have employed our youths. Conservation of environment requires combined efforts from both authority and members of the public," he said.

Zimbabwe sentences foreign ivory poacher to 10 years in jail

3/27/2015

Source: Shanghaidaily.com

A Zimbabwe court has sentenced a Zambian poacher to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of raw ivory.

Walbita Lindunda, 38, was arrested by Zimbabwean authorities in March last year after being found with 94 kg of raw ivory worth 14, 100 U.S. dollars.

Hwange Provincial Magistrate Lindiwe Maphosa this week convicted Lundinda and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for illegal possession of ivory and three months for illegal entry into the country, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Thursday.

Zimbabwe has one of Africa's prime elephant sanctuaries, home to about 100,000 elephants. But in recent years, lack of conservation funds and resources led to a surge of ivory poaching, most of which involved collusion of local and foreign perpetrators.

Hwange National Park, located in the western part of the country, is hit hardest by poaching.

In 2013, poachers killed more than 100 elephants in the park and countless other animals by cyanide poisoning. Despite the arrest of several local perpetrators found dosing the water pans with poison, the alleged foreign master-head who engineered the large-scale crime remains at large.

Man charged with animal cruelty after stabbing Pomeranian over 60 times

3/27/2015

Source: Theanimalspost.com

Artyom Goncharuk, 27, has been charged with animal cruelty after his 3-year-old Pomeranian was found dead in his home in Richmond last September.

A BC SPCA investigation revealed the pup named Kaylly had been stabbed 61 times. “The necropsy results show that an extremely disturbing level of violence was inflicted on this poor dog,” said the chief of prevention and enforcement officer for the BC SPCA Marcie Moriarty.

Goncharuk is now facing up to 5 years in jail, a fine of up to $75,000, and a lifetime ban on owning pets.

“Thank goodness that these types of situations involving this level of violence are few and far between,” said Moriarty.

“We investigate up to 8,000 complaints a year of animals in neglect and while, unfortunately, I’ve seen cases like this in the past, they are the exception rather than the rule.”

Goncharuk was released on bail ans is expected to appear in court on 7 April.

10 blue bulls found dead in Amreli, forest officers suspect foul play

3/27/2015

Source: Indianexpress.com

As many as 10 blue bulls (Boselaphus tragocamelus), commonly known as Nilgai, were found dead in an agricultural field in Tataniya village of Amreli district of Gujarat on Friday, with forest officers suspecting foul play.

Forest officers were alerted in the afternoon that carcasses of 10 bule bulls were lying in an open agricultural field in Tataniya, a village some 50 west of Amreli town.

“Ten blue bulls belonging to different age groups have been found dead in Tataniya. Our staff have found traces of urea in water points in the vicinity of the incident. We have also observed live electrical wires nearby and we suspect foul play,” deputy conservator of forest (DCF) of Gir East Division, Anshuman Sharma told The Indian Express.

The DCF further said veterinarians were conducting on-the-spot post-mortem of the blue bulls, the largest antelope of Asia.

“We will collect samples of waters from the points nearby to confirm any presence of urea. The post-mortem will reveal exact cause of deaths of the animals,” Sharma further said.

The DCF said blue bulls live in groups but said it was unusual that 10 Nilgais could get electrocuted at a place.

Sources said the farm on which the carcasses of the animal were found at around 1 pm belongs to one Gidha Variya and that it was located some three kilometres away from Bhangalwad reserve forest, the nearest forest area in Khambha range. Tataniya is part of territory where endangered Asiatic lions are found. Blue bulls are prey of the top predator. However, farmers complain the antelopes are damaging their standing crops.

Sharma added that urea triggers internal bleeding, killing Nilgais within hours. The blue bulls is a protected animal under Schedule-III of the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972 and killing it can earn one imprisonment for three years and monetary fine.

68 Elephants Massacred in Democratic Republic of Congo in Past 60 Days, Is Extinction Only Decades Away?

3/27/2015

Source: Ecowatch.com

By Lizabeth Paulat

A recent summit on elephant population and habitat has led to some dire predictions: the African elephant may go extinct within our lifetimes.

Putting the end date at just decades away, the African Elephant Summit, which hosted delegates from various Asian, European and African countries, focused on mitigating poaching and increasing elephant habitats around the continent.

The statistics presented are staggering. In the 1940s, there were thought to be around 3-5 million African elephants in the wild. These days conservation organizations are estimating only 500,000 to 700,000 elephants currently exist. The largest drops came during the 1980′s when the continent saw widespread turbulence. Rather than rising back up from the fall when stability took over much of the region, increased poaching has hastened the elephant’s population decline.

The summit highlighted the link between poverty, infant mortality and poaching, showing a correlation between desperate communities, and how susceptible they can be to engaging in the illegal wildlife trade.

Yet, despite these dire warnings, there is a small beacon of hope in the midst.

Uganda, which saw a dramatic loss in wildlife during the 1980 bush wars, has become an example to many African nations on how to reintroduce the species while combating poaching.

In 1982 the population of elephants in Uganda fell to the drastically low number of 2,000. Today, that number has more than doubled with more than 5,000 elephants roaming freely and steady population increases.

Although poaching still exists in Uganda’s national parks, the rate has fallen in recent years.

In 2010, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) noted that 25 elephants were killed by poachers annually in their national parks. However, thanks to new outposts, community outreach and advancing technology, by 2013 that number fell to just five elephants. In fact, although Uganda remains a transit hub for ivory poached in conflict zones such as South Sudan and the DRC, comparatively little ivory is sourced from Uganda.

Jossy Muhangi, a spokesman with the UWA, says to combat local poachers (who often sell to international syndicates), they’ve created intelligence agencies that go into local communities and attempt to discourage the hunting of bush meat and trading of ivory or pangolin skins. It is this community outreach that has led to several important tips on ivory smugglers, including a storehouse outside of Entebbe, where raw ivory was manufactured into trinkets.

He also says that increased ranger posts, both on lakes and on land, have helped discourage those that try to slip out by boat under the cover of darkness. It is this multi-pronged approach that has helped elephants continue to increase their populations around the country, while keeping poaching deaths at a regional low.

In fact, the Uganda Conservation Foundation measured a 40 percent increase in elephants coming to Uganda (from Democratic Republic of Congo borders) and a 24 percent reduction in elephants entering the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is likely due to sporadic fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo and protection afforded to elephants within the Ugandan side of the park.

Although other countries around Africa have a myriad of different issues which contribute to high rates of poaching, it seems that addressing local factors such as poverty, as well as porous borders and a lack of highly trained anti-poaching task forces, can make significant headway in anti-poaching measures. This is a model many countries can emulate around the continent, ensuring that within our lifetimes, the African elephant remains an important member of the continent’s ecosystem.

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