It is always good news for conservationists, when they hear about arrest and punishment of poachers and smugglers of wildlife and wildlife artifacts. Here comes a good piece of info from UK.
Due to the diligent efforts of UK authorities, Donald Allison, of Preston, Lancashire, an antiques dealer, who tried to smuggle rhino horns out of Manchester Airport has been jailed for 12 months. He had hidden the two horns in a sculpture as he tried to board a flight to China. The worth of horns is estimated to be around £600,000. They were destined for Chinese medicine market.
The investigators used DNA samples to trace the horns to the rhino Simba, which died from natural causes at the Essex zoo in 2009. The rhino's entire head was stolen and sold for £400 after its body was sent for statutory disposal.
Simba was a white rhinoceros from southern Africa, an animal protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). The convention stipulates that the bodies of protected species should be incinerated after death.
Preventing the horns being sold on to the illegal world market is vital to the long term conservation of endangered species. UK authorities have acted with alacrity. Tahr country salutes the officials.
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