26 Heartbreaking Pictures Of Smuggled Animals That Will Make A Silent Tear Roll Down Your Cheek
The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be $8 billion a year worldwide according to TRAFFIC a wildlife trade monitoring network. One of the powerful apes tore a wildlife officers finger off when he tried to put them in cages. One man traveling by ship from Makassar Sulawesi with 22 of the endangered cockatoos held inside water bottles.
It's shocking how inhuman human beings can be.
1. Black spotted freshwater turtles are pictured after they were seized in a raid, at Sindh Wildlife Department in Karachi, Pakistan.
REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
2. A policeman holds a water bottle with a yellow-crested cockatoo put inside for illegal trade, at the customs office of Tanjung Perak port in East Java.
REUTERS/Antara Foto/Risyal Hidayat
Police arrested one man traveling by ship from Makassar, Sulawesi, with 22 of the endangered cockatoos held inside water bottles.
3. A wildlife department official holds a Malayan sun bear for the media in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
REUTERS/Olivia Harris
It was among other animals estimated to be worth $20,000 including juvenile eagles and a slow loris, seized by the wildlife department during an operation against illegal wildlife traders earlier this month. The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be $8 billion a year worldwide, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network.
4. Cambodian police officers hold a python before handing it to members of the NGO WildAid after it was recovered from smugglers, in Kandal province, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
REUTERS/Samrang Pring
5. A baby orangutan lies in a plastic crate, after it was seized from a wildlife trafficking syndicate, at a police office in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia
REUTERS/FB Anggoro/Antara Foto
According to local media, police investigators arrested individuals from a wildlife trafficking syndicate who were attempting to smuggle out three orangutan babies, ranging between 6 to 12 months of age, from their forest in Aceh with the intention of selling them to buyers in Pekanbaru for the price of Rp25 million per orangutan.
6. A veterinarian holds a Mexican tarantula which had been rescued with other animals while being trafficked illegally, at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
7. A keeper gives a peanut to an orangutan inside a cage shortly after it arrived from Thailand at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta.
REUTERS/Beawiharta
Fourteen orangutans smuggled into Thailand illegally were sent back to Indonesia, but the operation was not without incident -- one of the powerful apes tore a wildlife officer's finger off when he tried to put them in cages.
8. A turtle is seen as Cambodian police officers hand over wild animals to members of the WildAid NGO after they were recovered from smugglers in Kandal province, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
REUTERS/Samrang Pring
9. A plastic bag containing thousands of confiscated elvers (young eels) are shown to media at a cargo terminal in Ninoy Aquino International airport in Manila, Philippines.
REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo
Airport authorities confiscated some two million elvers, weighing around 949 kg and amounting to 22,000 pesos ($524) per kilo. The elvers were supposed to be shipped to Hong Kong, local media reported. According to Philippine law fingerlings are not to be exported unless for scientific or education purposes.
10. An officer holds a baby saltwater crocodile at BKSDA (Natural Resources Conservation Board) office in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
REUTERS/Dwi Oblo
The reptile is one of 27 saltwater crocodiles confiscated as they were being smuggled from Central Kalimantan province to Central Java for trade.
11. Long-tailed macaque babies are seen inside a basket as police seized a truck smuggling them from Vietnam to China, in Changsha, Hunan province, China.
REUTERS/Stringer
12. Rescued baby iguanas are pictured in a cardboard box, in an office of the Ministry of Environment in San Jose, May 25, 2015.
REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate
Officers from the national police force of Costa Rica rescued 81 iguanas that had been confined to a box at a hotel in San Jose. It is presumed that the captive iguanas were the subject of an exotic pet smuggling, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry of the Environment rehabilitated the iguanas to a natural habitat today.
13. A Mexican coyote that had been rescued with other animals while being trafficked illegally, is seen through the bars of an enclosure at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
14. Falcons are seen at the offices of Sindh Wildlife Police after they were seized in Karachi, Pakistan
REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Twenty-two falcons worth one million rupees ($9,600) each were seized by the Rangers paramilitary force after they were discovered during a snap inspection along a toll booth, as they were being smuggled from Peshawar to Karachi. The birds were later handed over to Sindh Wildlife Department, reported local media.
15. Terrapins are seen during a news conference in San Salvador, El Salvador
REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
More than 90 turtles, monkeys and parrots were found in plastic bags inside a dumpster, ready to be smuggled into Salvadorean territory.
16. A slow loris, seized during an operation against illegal wildlife traders, is carried in a cage by a wildlife department official in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
REUTERS/Olivia Harris
17. A worker holds a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) after unloading it from a truck in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
REUTERS/Murdani Usman
Police said they foiled an attempt to smuggle 71 green turtles for food. The turtles, caught in the waters off Sulawesi Island, have an average weight of 100 kilograms (220 pounds).
18. A woman on a flight from Singapore to Melbourne shows the 51 live tropical fish hidden in a specially designed apron under her skirt.
REUTERS/Handout/Australian Customs Service
Customs officers became suspicious after hearing "flipping" noises coming from the vicinity of her waist, and an examination revealed 15 plastic water-filled bags holding concealed fish.
19. A coati, which had been rescued from a home along with two others of its kind, sits inside its enclosure at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
20. A newborn baby pangolin climbs the walls of a cage in Bangkok, Thailand.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
The Thai custom office showed 175 pangolins they found hidden in a truck heading into Bangkok.
21. Tarantulas, shipped by a German national into the United States by mail and confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
REUTERS/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
22. A serpent eagle sits inside its cage after being seized from illegal traders, at Manila's police district, Philippines.
REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo
23. Spider monkeys that had been found on a bus inside a bag with three dead monkeys, rest in a hammock at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
24. A black rattlesnake which had been rescued with other animals while being trafficked illegally, is seen inside a plastic cylinder at the Federal Wildlife Conservation Center on the outskirts of Mexico City.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
25. African grey parrots rescued from an illegal trader by Ugandan officials at the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo border crossing are seen at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe, southwest of the capital Kampala, Uganda.
REUTERS/James Akena
26. A Pakistan customs official releases a falcon seized during a raid in Karachi, in Kirthar National Park, Pakistan.
REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro