There are many crimes that I don’t really understand, but when it comes to live animals, I’m especially baffled. I mean, sure smuggle cigarettes or whatever to make money, but living things that have never hurt anybody and only want to be left alone to live their lives in peace? That, I don’t get.
So it’s doubly saddening to see something like this case of turtle smuggling — and to find out just how rampant this practice is.
Customs officials in the Philippines were shocked to discover more than 1,500 live exotic turtles crammed into four suitcases abandoned at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
Four different species were represented among the turtles, which had been wrapped in duct tape and stuffed between articles of clothing or into boxes.
Three of the species — the star, redfoot, and African spurred tortoises — were classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable.
As CNN reported, the fourth species, the red-eared slider turtle, is a common pet.
The suitcases were left unclaimed in the arrivals area by a passenger from the Philippines on a flight from Hong Kong who seemingly got cold feet about trying to sneak the turtles through customs.
Animal smuggling carries strict penalties in the Philippines — according to customs officials, the passengers faces up to two years in prison and a fine of 200,000 pesos if they’re ever found and convicted.
Nevertheless, the illegal wildlife trade is lucrative in Asia, with turtles being sold either as exotic pets or as ingredients for traditional medicines or even as delicacies.
Although all wild turtles are protected by law in Hong Kong, illegal traps are regularly found there.
As the BBC reported, the smugglers could have sold the turtles found in the luggage for more than 4.5 million pesos, or about $87,000.
This find is only the most recent seizure of a large shipment of smuggled turtles.
In 2018, officials in Madagascar found that poachers had crammed almost 10,000 live radiated tortoises — a rare species only found in Madagascar — into a single home.
Authorities believe the turtles, which are illegal to remove from the forests, were to be smuggled out of the country.
And just a week before the turtles were found in the Philippines, authorities in Malaysia intercepted an attempt to smuggle 3,300 pig-nosed turtles into the country.
The 3,300 turtles were contained in just seven packages on a boat bound near the country’s southern coast.
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Pig-nosed turtles are endangered due to high demand from exotic pet traders, Reuters reported. In that case, two people were arrested.
Back in the Philippines, customs officials said that in 2018, they intercepted a total of 560 endangered species.
That included 250 geckos, 254 corals, and other reptiles. So far in 2019, they’ve caught 63 iguanas, chameleons, and bearded dragons in addition to the turtles.
The turtles seized in Manila have been turned over to the country’s Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit.
And, sadly, they probably won’t be the last. As a Wildlife Justice Commission report from 2018 found, officials at airports and transport hubs are increasingly targeted for bribery by the multi-million dollar illegal wildlife trade.