South Africa arrests two men with 41kg of rhino-horn in anti-poaching operation

ZACHARY DAVIES BOREN

Sunday 02 November 2014

Two Vietnamese men have been arrested in South Africa after they were found in possession of 41 kg of rhino horns, the largest amount ever seized the country.

The two men, their haul believed to originate from South African parks, were due to fly to Hanoi from the capital of neighbouring Mozambique but were arrested during a stop-over in Johannesberg, according to a police statement.

Rhino populations across the southern African continent are being decimated by poaching.

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Mozambique logs a rare victory against poachers

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The recent arrests of six suspected poachers on a vast wildlife reserve in Mozambique are seen by conservationists as rare good news in a country where elephants and other species are under extreme threat.

The poaching ring had been operating in the Niassa National Reserve, which is twice the size of South Africa's flagship Kruger National Park, where the rhino population has been hit hard by poachers, many of whom cross over from Mozambique.

The Sept. 7 detentions in the southern African nation followed nearly a year of investigative work, illustrating the challenges of policing rugged areas where armed poachers hike on expeditions that often last two weeks and sometimes kill elephants with single shots targeting vital organs.

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Crackdown on fish poaching in Wales nets 139 arrests

14 August 2014 Last updated at 18:09

A crackdown on fish poaching across Wales has seen 139 people prosecuted in the first four months of the year, says Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

The legal action has seen those involved fined £18,000 in total.

On Tuesday two men were the latest arrests for illegal fishing, after being found on a dinghy with a net on the River Usk in Monmouthshire.

But officials say the issue is a problem across Wales, and threatens an angling industry worth £150m a year.

Since the start of the year, individuals have been caught fishing illegally or poaching from the Loughor estuary in west Wales to the Menai Strait in Gwynedd and the River Dee in Flintshire.

NRW said its biggest concern was "foul hooking", which involves dragging hooks through the water at high speed in an attempt to impale fish.

Tourism 'draw'

This often leaves more fish damaged and dying in the river than are brought to shore, a spokesperson said.

The fish most threatened are wild salmon and sea trout.

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Machine-gun weilding poachers arrested in Tanzania

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 28 mins ago

Police and wildlife rangers in Tanzania have arrested 6 poachers armed with a submachine gun who had been on an elephant poaching spree killing at least 28 elephants. The suspected poachers were arrested just after mid-night on Monday in the village of Kiyombo in central Tanzania.

Authorities recovered 55 elephant tusks from the gang, indicating that they had killed at least 28 elephants in their poaching spree.

Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu said the poachers were arrested some hours after midnight in Monday morning. “Right now, the arrested poachers are being held at the Manyoni police station,”

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3 Chinese arrested boarding a plane with 14 rhino horns

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 3 hours ago

Namibia has announced that 3 Chinese nationals were arrested on 23rd March as they boarded an aircraft with 14 rhino horns and leopard skins hidden in their luggage. They were arrested as they tried to board a flight to Hong Kong from Namibia.

The three men were arrested at 07.40 am on Sunday 23rd March. Customs officials discovered the rhino horns during a routine scan of luggage. They had been wrapped in foil and plastic before being hidden in clothes. They were about to board a flight to Johannesburg with a connection onto Hong Kong as their final destination.

Deputy commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi from the Namibian police revealed details about the Chinese following investigations.

The Chinese had flown from China on March 9th and arrived in Zambia. They then arrived in Namibia on 12th March on a tourist visa at the Wenela border post.

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Major poaching arrest in China

WCS plays significant role in largest-ever action in Jilin Province

December 2013: The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has congratulated authorities in China’s Jilin Province for the recent arrests of five poachers – the largest ever for the province.

The arrests were made by the Forestry Police of the Hunchun Municipal Forestry Bureau (HMFB), who said the organised gang of poachers with two jeeps and 18 hunting dogs admitted to killing more than 20 animals including tiger prey. In addition to the arrests, the jeeps and dogs were confiscated.

The HMFB is one of the members of the Law Enforcement Cooperation Framework initiated by the WCS in 2011. With WCS help, the HMFB has been conducting SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) patrols and snare removal campaigns, as well as camera trapping in the rural areas outside of Hunchun National Nature Reserve since last January. 

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Animal Smuggling Ring Leader Pleads Guilty Amid Fresh Slaughter

U.S. officials warned today of an "urgent" need to stop the increasing "slaughter of magnificent creatures" around the world, as they announced a "significant" step toward fighting animal poaching.

Earlier today, a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to leading a ring that smuggled horns, tusks, and ornamental cups and figurines made from endangered rhinos or elephants to China.

"We really do face an urgent challenge in trying to stem the ongoing slaughter of rhinos and elephants and other wildlife," Dan Ashe, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in announcing the plea.

So far this year, 940 rhinos have been killed in South Africa alone and "that slaughter continues to escalate," Ashe said.

Read on

Hwange elephant poisoning update - Death toll now 81 elephants

Largest elephant poisoning on record

September 2013. Since the original discovery of 41 elephant carcasses in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park last week, a further 40 carcasses have now been discovered in what is believed to be the worst mass poisoning of elephants on record. Zimbabwe's Minister for Tourism, Walter Mzembi, visited the site of the massacre in Hwange National Park and announced that the death toll had now reached 81 elephants, and a large amount of smaller game, and that it was still possible that more would be found.

Zimbabwe Government officials have (again) vowed to crackdown on poaching.

It is highly likely that more wildlife, especially scavengers, will have eaten some of the carcasses will have died in addition to the elephants over a much more wisdespread area, and the full extent of the damage may never be known.

More arrests

Five Zimbabwean nationals were originally arrested in connection with the use of cyanide in Hwange National Park, and reports now indicate three more people have been arrested. Ivory, cyanide and a leopard skin were all recovered from the alleged poachers.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/hwange-elephants.html

Zimbabwe poachers jailed 15 years for elephant poisoning

Harare (AFP) - A Zimbabwe court on Wednesday sentenced three poachers to at least 15 years in prison each for poisoning and killing 81 elephants, state radio reported.

A provincial magistrate sentenced 25-year-old Diyane Tshuma to 16 years in prison for poisoning elephants with cyanide at in Hwange National Park, in the west of Zimbabwe, Spot FM reported.

His co-accused Robert Maphosa, 42, and Thabani Zondo, 24, were each sentenced to 15 years.

"The parks and wildlife management authority has hailed the sentences saying they will be a deterrent to would-be poachers," Spot FM reported.

Tshuma was ordered to pay $600,000 (440,000 euro) to the Zimbabwe Wildlife and Parks Authority for killing the animals, while Zondo must pay $200,000 by the end of the year.

Elephant's tusks are highly sought after for Asia's ivory trade.

The three were among nine people arrested on suspicion of poisoning watering holes in the game park.

However, Jerry Gotora, chairman of the Zimbabwe parks department board of directors on Tuesday said the poison had been "put at places where elephants graze, not in water".

Two years ago nine elephants, five lions and two buffalo died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange National Park.

Just 50 rangers patrol the 14,650-square kilometre (5,660-square mile) park, and wildlife authorities say 10 times that number are needed.

There are more than 120,000 elephants living in Zimbabwe's national parks.

http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-poachers-jailed-15-years-elephant-poisoning-172555271.html

With Arrests, Signs of Justice in Slaying of Costa Rican Turtle Guardian - via Herp Digest

By ANDREW C. REVKIN, New York Times, “Dot Earth Blog” 8/2/13

In a series of raids early Wednesday morning in Limón province, Costa Rican police arrested eight suspects in the May murder of Jairo Mora, a 26-year-old environmental worker protecting sea turtle nesting beaches.

Two months after the murder of Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26-year-old environmental worker trying to prevent egg poaching from leatherback turtle nests in Costa Rica, authorities made the first arrests on Wednesday in a series of raids in and around Limón, on the Caribbean coast.

The arrests came as both domestic and international pressure for action grew. Demonstrations were held this week in the capital. On Thursday, the Tico Times reported that John Knox, a United Nations official focused on the intersection of human rights and the environment visiting the country, held a news conference in which he made this point:

“It’s not the task of social organizations, civil society or citizens to put their own lives at risk to protect the environment. These are police functions that have to be adequately carried out by the government,” Knox said. “It’s one thing to protect turtle eggs from tourists, it’s another to protect them from poachers….” [Read the rest.]

Earlier this month Representative Jared Huffman, Democrat of California, urged Secretary of State John Kerry to press Costa Rica to pursue justice in the case, noting that three American women and a Spanish woman who were volunteers in the turtle protection effort had been abducted in the same incident (they escaped).

For the moment, the motives behind the slaying remain murky. A detailed Tico Times article on the raids describes conflicting theories about the murder. Police are pointing to evidence of a simple robbery by a violent gang, but conservationists assert there were signs that efforts to stem egg poaching may have led to the killing.

Hopefully the truth will out and justice will be done. Earlier Dot Earth posts on the murder are here. Track the latest developments through the Twitter hashtag #JairoMora.

Two California men arrested for rat and reptile cruelty (Video) – via Herp Digest

By: Sonia Lavina, Examiner, 7/23/13

http://www.examiner.com/article/two-california-men-arrested-for-rat-and-reptile-cruelty

Two men have been charged with 106 counts of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, California according to Fox News on July 23.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called it the largest-ever seizure of animals in California.

Global Captive Breeders bred animals for the exotic pet trade. Owner Mitch Behm and company manager David Delgado were arrested Friday.

In addition to the 106 cruelty counts, Delgado was charged with 11 counts of alleged direct torture or killing of rodents.

Behm was released on $50,000 bail Saturday. Delgado is still in custody.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) initiated the investigation after sending an undercover operative to work at the breeding facility.

Men charged over hare coursing in North Lincolnshire

Two men have been charged with hunting offences after reports of illegal hare coursing on farmland.

The men, aged 48 and 45 and from Doncaster, were arrested in Sandtoft, North Lincolnshire, at about 12:00 GMT on Sunday

They have been charged with hunting wild mammals with dogs.

Police said they had been released on bail and were due to appear at North Lincolnshire Magistrates' Court in February.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-21123636

Arrests within days of bird protection cameras set up

Secret cameras to protect rare Westcountry birds from suspected egg collectors and poisoners have led to two arrests – just two days after they were installed.

Devon and Cornwall Police and wildlife groups joined forces for Operation Wilderness to safeguard threatened species including goshawk, peregrine falcon, red-backed shrike and cirl bunting.

And the operation has already resulted in the arrest of two men on suspicion of disturbing a peregrine falcon nest at a coastal site in South Devon.

The men, one aged 44 and the other 43, who are both from Brixham, were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Both were quizzed before being released pending further inquiries.

Wildlife crime officer PC Josh Marshall said the pair had approached the peregrine's nest, which currently has one egg in it.

They had been arrested on suspicion of disturbing a Schedule 1 protected bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The operation was publicly announced earlier this month. Ten cameras have been placed at the nest sites of previously targeted species.

Volunteers, acting under police licences, have located difficult-to-find nest sites and installed the covert cameras.

The action was taken after a series of high-profile bird poisoning incidents in Devon and Cornwall last year.

"A number of incidents indicated that nationally important species of birds are being persecuted within Devon," PC Marshall said when the operation was launched.

"Four goshawks were found poisoned with a dead, poisoned buzzard. This was approximately 20 per cent of Devon's breeding population of goshawk.

"A number of peregrine falcons have also been found poisoned in the region.

"Toxicology reports indicate they died through ingesting the banned pesticide Carbofuran."

The red-backed shrike, wiped out as a breeding species in England due to persecution from egg collectors, is attempting to breed in this country for the first time in 20 years at a secret location on southern Dartmoor.

A 24-hour watch wardening scheme was run in the summers of 2010 and 2011.

The site was visited by known egg collectors but the scheme resulted in successful breeding by one pair of shrikes in 2010 and two pairs in 2011.

PC Marshall said that the taking of birds' eggs had been illegal in Britain since at least 1954.

It was also illegal to photograph Schedule 1 species at or near the nest site without appropriate licences, he added.

The Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society is funding the covert wildlife cameras, which police hope will provide evidence for prosecutions.

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/Arrests-days-bird-protection-cameras-set/story-15678079-detail/story.html