While Mark Zuckerberg was testifying before Congress about Facebook providing user information to Cambridge Analytica, additional disturbing news about his company was making headlines. Facebook has been making a profit by selling ads on pages that are operated by illegal wildlife traffickers. The pages sell the body parts of endangered animals, according to a complaint […]
Just weeks after the Trump administration announced a new policy allowing the importation of dead African elephant and lion parts by U.S. trophy hunters, a group of environmental and wildlife conservation NGOs has filed a lawsuit alleging the move goes against recent court rulings. Around the same time, Born Free USA filed a second lawsuit […]
Animal advocates are celebrating a landmark ruling against wildlife traffickers who were arrested last fall in Indonesia after they were caught in connection with a criminal network trading endangered slow lorises. The operation, which was part of an effort to dismantle an illegal wildlife trafficking network that was using Facebook to sell wildlife, was carried […]
Whistleblowers are the number one source of fraud detection across the world. In fact, whistleblowers are such an incredibly valuable tool in fraud detection, that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) give out millions of dollars in monetary rewards every year through their dedicated whistleblower programs to whistleblowers who […]
The EU has traditionally been a global leader in tackling the problem of wildlife trafficking and in encouraging other countries to take action. Last year it published a far-reaching Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking, which set out a comprehensive list of actions to address the problem. So why is it dragging its heels when it […]
We talk a lot about wildlife trafficking and the threat it poses as a broad issue, but we don’t always get to see the direct impact it has on individual animals. This week, the seizure of two baby orangutans who were destined to be pets has offered a heartbreaking glimpse into the real price being […]
There are hundreds of UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world that have been protected because they are culturally, ecologically and economically valuable. These sites are among the last strongholds for some of the earth’s most iconic and endangered species, including orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. Unfortunately, even though these sites are recognized for their […]
Traffickers from Latin America are desperate to get their product into the United States—so desperate they’ll risk the dangers of swimming across the Rio Grande with their contraband. But it’s not meth and it’s not cocaine. In one case, according to a special agent, it was about 25 parrots destined to be sold as pets. […]
On the black market it is reputedly worth more than its weight in gold or cocaine, and this week the lure of rhino horn brought the bloody business of poaching to a zoo near Paris. There, in the dead of night, criminals broke in, shot a white rhino called Vince three times in the head […]
Kenya has banned the export of various snake species, including the African rock python, to zoos and pet shops around the world after reports of animal abuse and snakes being sold on the black market for their meat and skins. The trafficking of the endangered snakes by cartels is also having a negative impact on […]
Bolivia introduced a general and indefinite ban on the wildlife trade two decades ago, but this measure has failed to stop the trafficking of wild animals. Birds, monkeys, turtles and reptiles that are in high demand as pets remain particularly vulnerable to wildlife crime. In recent years, jaguars (Panthera onca) have also become victims of […]
Peru is one of the most biodiverse nations on earth, home to one-tenth of the Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems. But its species are sought by collectors around the world and there is a thriving domestic trade in wildlife which together forms one of the country’s most profitable illicit economies running parallel to its impressively […]
Kampala, Uganda – Investigators posing as buyers lured the suspects to a lodge near Buliisa, a town in western Uganda, as night set in. The two men arrived by motorbike with the contraband concealed inside a nylon sack. “They requested for me to take [the sack] inside a room,” one of the men, Fred Byenkya, […]
