The National Butterfly Center in Texas, which opposed US President Donald Trump’s border wall, has been forced to close indefinitely due to harassment from right-wing conspiracy theorists. According to HuffPost, the 100-acre nature preserve in Mission, Texas, has been involved in a legal battle with the former Trump administration and the non-profit We Build a […]
Tag: trafficking
Texas biology professor charged for illegally trafficking 14 protected wildlife species
AMARILLO, Texas (ABC4) – A Texas biologist has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly importing protected wildlife items into the country without declaring it or obtaining the required permits. Dr. Richard Kazmaier, 54, an associate professor of biology at West Texas A&M University, was charged Thursday with smuggling goods into the United […]
Siberian tigers are being hunted at night for their body parts
The tiger was already dead when they spotted it, the hunters said—a furry, ochre mound against the snowy backdrop of Primorye, a sprawling region eight time zones from Moscow, in Russia’s Far East. The seven men took a picture with the massive Amur tiger, their arms casually slung around each other’s shoulders, the straps from […]
Tiger farms doing little to end wild poaching, Vietnam consumer study shows
Acting on a tipoff, Vietnamese police pried open a basement door in Nghe An province and flicked on the light switch. Videos from the August 2021 raid show officers filing down an aisle past cage after cage of adult tigers. Starved of daylight, malnourished and raised as livestock in concrete cells, each tiger was destined […]
Terrified Bear Cub Rescued from Illegal Wildlife Trafficking and Moved to Sanctuary in Vietnam
The recent rescue of an Asiatic black bear cub marks Animals Asia 650th rescued bear. According to a release from the nonprofit, Animals Asia received a call from the Uong Bi police officers from the Quang Ninh province of Vietnam on Nov. 8 about the bear cub. Before the call, the authorities confiscated the cub […]
Police bust 2 men selling hornbills on Indonesian Facebook
Police in Indonesia’s Banten province arrested two men who were using social media to sell dozens of hornbills, an iconic bird under threat from habitat loss and poaching. Didin Hendriana, 35, procured the birds, buying them from people living near Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java, and Luki Hamjah, 20, was […]
Protecting Reef Wildlife by Stopping the Aquarium Trade
Nowadays, when you are snorkeling in the Hawaiian Islands, unless you are in a protected area, you may be faced with the fact that the very marine animals have left the building. I returned to the Big Island to go snorkeling after 15 years and was shocked at the absence of beautiful reef fish that […]
Bear Cub ‘Wonder’ Rescued From Illegal Traffickers
Recently, our Vietnam sanctuary team was contacted by a police officer in the Dien Bien border region of North Vietnam. They had confiscated a bear cub from an illegal wildlife trafficker and asked us to come and rescue them. The police had been tipped off by Education For Nature Vietnam (ENV) who had been monitoring […]