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Oct 1, 2010
'Tiger pelt', hedgehog for sale
Sting operations catch 3 individuals hawking such wares online
By Grace Chua
It is not known whether the tiger pelt (above) and pieces of skin seized are real, but penalties apply even if the parts are fake.
STING operations by wildlife activists here have caught three individuals trying separately to sell pieces of tiger skin, a whole tiger pelt, and a hedgehog. It is not known yet whether the skins found by undercover officers of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) are real, but the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) has seized the items and launched investigations.
No one has been arrested yet. The haul was the result of Acres' first operation to nab people who advertise such illegal wares online. They follow an exercise completed early this year, which homed in on people selling tiger parts in shops. The authorities then clamped down on jewellery shops selling ornaments allegedly made of tiger parts.
The sale of tiger parts is banned worldwide. All six tiger species are highly endangered; by some statistics, just 3,200 are left in the wild. They are protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which 175 countries have ratified, including Singapore.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
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