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PHL seizes hundreds of smuggled animals


 

A staff of Ninoy Aquino Parks and Rescue Center feeds rescued sulphur-crested cockatoos on a cage in Manila on March 13, 2018. Environment authorities have seized hundreds of birds and marsupials stuffed in cramped cages in one of the country's largest hauls of live animals destined for the pet trade, officials said NOEL CELIS / AFP
A staff of Ninoy Aquino Parks and Rescue Center feeds rescued sulphur-crested cockatoos on a cage in Manila on March 13, 2018. Environment authorities have seized hundreds of birds and marsupials stuffed in cramped cages in one of the country's largest hauls of live animals destined for the pet trade, officials said NOEL CELIS / AFP

Authorities seized on Tuesday hundreds of exotic pets smuggled into the Philippines, which is a regional hub in the illicit animal trade.

The cache of some 300 creatures, which included squirrel-like sugar gliders, wallabies and a threatened species of cockatoo, was one of the nation's largest wildlife busts.

"In terms of live animals, this was likely one of our biggest (captures)," government environment official Rogelio Demelletes told AFP.

 

A staff of Ninoy Aquino Parks and Rescue Center holds a rescued sugar glider in Manila on March 13, 2018. NOEL CELIS / AFP
A staff of Ninoy Aquino Parks and Rescue Center holds a rescued sugar glider in Manila on March 13, 2018. NOEL CELIS / AFP

Four suspects were arrested in the raid that turned up animals native to Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The haul also included seven red birds of paradise and 26 Moluccan cockatoos, which wildlife monitor IUCN considers to be at high risk of extinction in the wild.

Philippine officials put the market value of the confiscated creatures at $192,000, which is more than all the live wildlife seized by Manila last year.

As the global convention on wildlife trade lists the Moluccan cockatoo as a species threatened with extinction, the suspects face up to 12 years in prison if convicted under the country's wildlife act.

Despite the law, the Philippines has a burgeoning illegal trade in wildlife, increasingly transacted on social media platforms. — Agence France-Presse

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