Airport staff suspicions were aroused when the bag went through the sensors and the x-ray showed an image of a cat’s beating heart and other organs. Tests of the tiger DNA are currently being conducted to determine the tiger’s origin and sub species, which will determine whether it was wild caught, or captive born.
Tiger Cub Found at Bangkok's Airport, Sulma Warne-TRAFFIC
While over in Vietnam, a massive seizure of wildlife from restaurants was conducted by the Lam Dong Forest Protection Department (FPD). A huge co-ordinated campaign involving over 100 officers from the province investigated restaurants suspected of selling illegal wildlife based on results from a survey that found that 44 restaurants and 33 Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) shops (representing 68% restaurants and 21% TCM shop visited) were serving wildlife.
Civets Found During the Raid. ZooNews Digest
A huge number of animals and animal parts were found, over 300kg of meat from animals including civets, pangolins, porcupine, mouse deer, bear paws, clouded leopard, short-clawed otter, leopard cat, binturong, and small Indian civet. These animals were destined to end up on the plates of customers at the restaurants.
Langurs and Other Animals Seized. ZooNews Digest
The two findings this week indicate that the illegal wildlife trade is still going strong in South East Asia, and with the tiger heading for Iran, the trade is not just staying in South East Asia. Although it is fantastic that the raids occurred, and the staff at the airport were quick witted enough to spot the tiger amongst the toys, it shows that people will still try to smuggle animals, dead or alive, and will continue to poach them unless something is done to really act as a preventative.
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