PARROTS STUFFED IN PLASTIC BOTTLES!! Bird smuggling and animal trafficking.

 

  PARROTS STUFFED IN PLASTIC BOTTLES!!

A ship was docked in Fakfak, a port town in Indonesia’s eastern region of Papua. As the crew went about their duties they heard strange sounds “coming from inside a large box,” according to a report on the BBC website.

A local police spokesman Dodik Junaidi, told the AFP news Agency that the ship’s crew “suspected there were animals inside the box.”

What they found was extremely disturbing. There were “dozens of smuggled parrots stuffed in plastic bottles.” Sixty-four parrots were still alive, but ten birds were found dead. The live birds were set free.

Indonesia is home to the highest number of threatened bird species in Asia and a rampant illegal trade in birds, the article said.

There are avian markets in Indonesia where birds are sold domestically. But many birds are smuggled abroad.

Elizabeth John from the wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC told the BBC that black capped lorries are sought after illegally to supply the pet trade. Black capped lorries are “a type of parrot native to New Guinea and nearby islands in the South west Pacific Ocean.”

“Indonesia perhaps leads the charge in bird smuggling interceptions in the region,” Ms. John added. In 2015 a man who was attempting to stuff 21 yellow-crested cockatoos, an endangered bird, into bottles was arrested by the police in Indonesia. More arrests are needed though and a true crackdown of the players from source to market.

For example, cheetahs are trafficked from Ethiopia to wealthy families in the Gulf States (the animals are a status symbol for wealthy families in Saudi Arabia and the UAE). In January this year, a man tried to smuggle live scorpions out of Sri Lanka “packed in plastic bottles.”

In March, Colombian police rescued 2,000 smuggled freshwater turtles after they were discovered by a sniffer dog at an airport. In August, a report stated that the Chinese government has made moves to end the sale and consumption of wild animals.

TRAFFIC the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (with headquarters in Cambridge, UK) is the leading non-governmental organization working globally on the trade of wild animals and plants.

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