1,800 endangered reptiles saved in Malaysia
By DPA, IANSWednesday, December 22, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian custom officers seized more than 1,800 protected reptiles from a truck bound for Thailand, a news report said Wednesday.
The seizure Monday came following a tip, the Star newspaper reported. Officers found 475 hill tortoises, 437 freshwater turtles, 710 monitor lizards and 196 king cobras in a truck at the Malaysia-Thailand border.
The animals were packed in gunny sacks and plastic bags, hidden among heaps of empty fruit baskets and boxes of sawn logs.
The truck had been left unattended in a queue waiting for the Thai border to open, after clearing Malaysian customs, the Kedah state customs director Ishak Ahmad as quoted as saying.
“We believe the reptiles, weighing 4,300 kg, were bound for restaurants that sell exotic dishes,” he said.
The animals, said to be worth a total 24,000 ringgit ($7,669), would be handed over to the wildlife department. Ishak said it was the biggest seizure of wildlife by his department this year.
