Not a pet is a wild protected animal Man who sells tortoises as pets is sentenced

Source: Procuratorial Daily

Tortoises smuggled from Madagascar are very popular in turtle enclosures, and he thinks he has found a business opportunity and began to buy and sell tortoises -

They are not pets but wild protected animals

Wang Minli Zeng Yanming

It is known that wild endangered species such as spoke tortoises, Sulcata tortoises, Hermann tortoises, leopard tortoises smuggled from Madagascar and other places are prohibited by national law, but some people still start a "business" of buying and selling rare and endangered wild animals regardless of risks in order to earn illegal benefits or meet personal preferences. On August 15, the Hanjiang District Court of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, rendered a judgment in accordance with the law on the illegal sale and purchase of rare and endangered wild animals by Ban X, Zhang X and other defendants who were prosecuted by the Hanjiang District Procuratorate, and all 17 defendants were convicted and sentenced.

Ban Mouben is a shop owner who legally runs a pet online store. By chance, he found that the spoke tortoises, Sulcata tortoises, Hermann tortoises, etc., smuggled from Madagascar and other places, were very popular in the turtle pen because of their beautiful appearance. Believing that he had discovered a "business opportunity", he began to learn about tortoises on the Internet, and at the same time, he also learned that these tortoises are international first- and second-class wild protected animals, prohibiting illegal trade, and some people have been sentenced for buying and selling these tortoises. But these tortoises are very marketable in the turtle pen, and with a fluke mentality, he still embarked on the road of buying and selling tortoises.

Since September 2017, Ban has used the Baidu Tieba account to publish advertising posts selling tortoises in various tortoise stickers. Because of its "honest management, reasonable price", and "after-sales worry-free", for a period of time, in the tortoise business circle has won a good "word of mouth", its customers all over Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Lanzhou, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Xining, Guiyang, Baoji, Benxi and other places, these tortoise "enthusiasts" through baidu tieba advertising to add Ban's WeChat to buy tortoises, if you think it is good, but also to the same love of tortoise friends around to recommend.

In March 2018, Zhang browsed a post about the sale and purchase of tortoises on Baidu Tieba, which contained science about various tortoises, as well as buyers and sellers communicating and trading here. Zhang was attracted by an advertisement selling tortoises, and according to the guidelines, he added the WeChat of the seller Ban. Through pictures and videos in the circle of friends, Zhang Mou became interested in these colorful and peculiar tortoises. After careful selection, he selected a spoke tortoise with yellow limbs and tail, and a bulging back armor shield covered with yellow radiation patterns, which looked really unique and beautiful. Zhang Mou also learned on Baidu Tieba that the spoke tortoise is an endangered animal and is a species listed in the Convention on the Protection of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and it is illegal to trade and trade in the spoke tortoise. However, under the trend of curiosity psychology and fluke psychology, Zhang Mou still decided to buy and negotiated the price of the transaction with Ban Mou.

Ban sent a link, the name of the baby is displayed as "Pure Muppet Cat of Polish Blood", but in fact, the buyer and seller know that the link is a cat, but it is actually a turtle. Zhang Paid on time to shoot it, and Ban also took care of Zhang: "After receiving the goods, take an unboxing video, if it is good, help me also publicize it." Within a few days, Zhang received a courier in the name of "seafood", and he knew that the purchased tortoises had arrived. Since then, Zhang has successively purchased 2 Sulcata tortoises and 1 Herman tortoise from Ban and raised them in his dormitory in a hotel in Yangzhou.

Zhang's strange tortoise raised in the dormitory was quickly discovered by the nearby masses and reported to the public security organs, the public security organs timely investigation, follow the line, not only arrested the seller Ban, but also arrested more than ten buyers who bought tortoises from Ban, and solved the case of 17 people led by Ban in many parts of the country illegally purchasing and selling rare and endangered wild animals.

Although these tortoise buyers claimed to have bought tortoises purely out of hobby and were carefully raised after buying them, these tortoises were tropical turtles and were not suitable for growing in China, coupled with express long-distance transportation, during which several tortoises died.

After trial, the court found that Ban committed the crime of illegally selling rare and endangered wild animals, selling a total of 25 tortoises, with a sales amount of more than 110,000 yuan. A total of 16 species of spoke tortoises have been listed in Appendix I of the Convention on the Protection of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and 9 species of shin-stinged tortoises (commonly known as Sulcata tortoises), Hermann tortoises and leopard tortoises listed in Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora have been identified. China is a party to the above-mentioned Convention, and the terrestrial wild animals listed in Appendix I and Appendix II of the Convention that are not native to China have been approved as national first- and second-level protected wild animals respectively in accordance with the law. The circumstances of Ban X's department were particularly serious, and the court sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment and fined 100,000 yuan in accordance with law; Zhang X and 16 other defendants were convicted of illegally purchasing rare and endangered wild animals and were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and fined, all of which were subject to suspended sentences. On August 30, Ban appealed against the first-instance judgment. At present, the second instance trial of the case is under trial.