China allows the use of tiger parts and rhino horn in tradtional medecine

China unveiled new rules on Monday that would allow the use of rhino horn and tiger parts for some medical and cultural purposes, watering down a decades-old ban in a move conservation group WWF said could have “devastating consequences”.

China’s State Council issued a notice replacing its 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn. The new rules ban the sale, use, import and export of such products, but allow exceptions under “special circumstances”, such as medical and scientific research, educational use, and as part of “cultural exchanges”.


This is absolute madness. A crime commited by a Government.

Almost a ton of Pangolin scales found in Vietnam

Hanoi authorities on Friday found pangolin scales and ivory weighing almost 805 kilograms plus 193 kilograms of ivory, which had arrived by air from Nigeria. The latest haul is further evidence of weak enforcement in Vietnam that allows the illegal trade in wildlife parts to flourish.


Pangolins are treasured in Vietnam and the region for their meat and alleged medicinal properties of their scales. Vietnam has banned trade in tusks and pangolins, but the practice has continued.

Since the shutdown of the Chinese ivory market it has been observed that the traders are moving to nearby countries including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to continue their business where there is little or no enforcement.

Huge shipment of rhino horn seized in Kuala Lumpur

Authorities have seized rhinoceros horns worth nearly RM48 million (US$ 11.5 million)  at Kuala Lumpur's cargo terminal, bound for Vietnam, the largest ever haul of horn discovered here.
Malaysia is a major transit point for the illegal trafficking of endangered species to other Asian countries.
Officials acting on a tip-off seized 50 horns, weighing about 116kg, at the cargo terminal of Kuala Lumpur airport on 13 August, a wildlife official said in a statement.

Major investigation exposes horrific tiger slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic

Czech Republic authorities raided premises in Prague and other locations, revealing a nightmarish tiger slaughterhouse at the centre of an international criminal trade ring.
Dubbed Operation Trophy, the raids were the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work and employed more than 200 enforcement officers from customs, police and the Czech Environmental Inspectorate (CEI).

In the illegal slaughterhouse, they found:
* a freshly killed tiger, shot through the eye to leave its skin undamaged
* a boiler for preparation of tiger glue
* many tiger claws, bones and skins
* dozens of dead animals, often in a state of decay.


Read more at https://eia-international.org/major-investigation-exposes-horrific-tiger-slaughterhouse-czech-republic

Canada: Black bear poaching operation busted by Quebec wildlife ministry.

 Sixty-four people allegedly involved in a black bear poaching operation have been caught by Quebec’s Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.

According to a statement from the ministry released Wednesday, the individuals were illegally trapping and selling black bear gall bladders. The gall bladders — specifically the bile inside — apparently are used by some practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, said Jasmin Larouche, director of wildlife protection for the Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean region.

The suspects, who come from the Saguenay, Mauricie, Côte-Nord and Laval regions, face 121 charges and could have to pay up to $328,000 in fines, Larouche said.

South Africa almost doubles lion bone export quota

South Africa is to nearly double the number of captive lion skeletons to be exported, from 800 to 1,500 a year.

There have been significant shipments of lion parts in the past 10 years to South-East Asia and China where they are marketed as tiger, further exacerbating demand for the world’s most endangered big cats.

There are fewer than 4,000 tigers left in the wild and they are still being targeted by consumers who want ‘the real thing’.

Leopards are also being targeted for their bones and body parts, again for the markets in SE Asia and China .

107 Wildlife trackng cameras destroyed by poachers in Cambodia

At least 107 cameras deployed for tracking endangered wildlife in the northeast provinces of Cambodia were dismantled or destroyed by poachers, according to a provincial environment official on Thursday.

Mondulkiri Provincial Environment Department director Keo Sopheak told The Post that the dismantling of the cameras showed that poaching in the Sre Pok and Phnom Prich wildlife sanctuaries continued at an alarming rate.

Sopheak said that data his team collected from other cameras indicated that poachers stole and destroyed cameras in the two wildlife sanctuaries. They wore civilian clothing but were armed with AK-47 and M-16 rifles.

“We cannot identify the perpetrators as the data collected from the other cameras’ vantage points allow us to only make out their bodies.

“Nonetheless, the Environment Department has filed a complaint with the Mondulkiri provincial police and the provincial Military Police requesting that they investigate further and arrest those responsible,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sopheak estimated that the cost of the damaged cameras was about $30,000.

Another lion lured out of a National Park to be shot as a trophy

Heard this one before somewhere?  Does the name Cecil come to mind?

So this time an American hunter lured a male lion around eight or nine years old out of the Kruger National Park and onto a private reserve where it was legal to shoot it. And he did. So where exactly was the 'hunt' part of that?

Legal but unethical and certainly immoral.

I ask this question. If rare animals are protected  from being hunted in the USA  why is it Ok to hunt rare animals in Africa? The justification is.......

The truth is, it's greed, dollars and somebody with an ego problem and very little brain out there who doesn't give a damn about the wildlife, or the right of the rest of humanity to view it in the wild - alive.

It's A CRIME.

Rangers find 109,217 poaching snares in a single park in Cambodia

Rangers find 109,217 poaching snares in a single park in Cambodia.

Snares – either metal or rope – are indiscriminately killing wildlife across Southeast Asia, from elephants to mouse deer. The problem has become so bad that scientists are referring to protected areas in the region as “empty forests.”

A simple break cable for motorbikes can kill a tiger, a bear, even a young elephant in Southeast Asia. Local hunters use these ubiquitous wires to create snares – indiscriminate forest bombs – that are crippling and killing Southeast Asia’s most charismatic species and many lesser-known animals as well. 

A fact from a new paper in Biodiversity Conservation highlights the scale of this epidemic: in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom National Park rangers with the Wildlife Alliance removed 109,217 snares over just six years .

Three black rhinos killed in Meru NP Kenya

Wildlife conservation suffered a blow after three rhinos were killed and their horns cut off in the Meru National Park on Wednesday.

The Kenya Wildlife Service said two black rhinos and a calf were killed in the park's rhino sanctuary at 6.30pm.

Rangers efforts to lay an ambush for the poachers were unsuccessful, the service said.