Wildlife saved from menus back in jungle

PHNOM PENH - A menagerie of wild animals destined to become nearly half a tonne of meat on restaurant plates is now back in the wild after being rescued from traders, Cambodian officials said yesterday.

Wildlife officers had confiscated a total of 448 kg of turtles, pythons, cobras, monkeys and birds during raids last Tuesday, said conservation official Dy Sokhom.

They raided two private rice warehouses in Kampong Thom province, 130 km north of Phnom Penh, after receiving a tip that wild animals were being kept there.

'We began searching those warehouses just about an hour before the animals were supposed to be taken to Vietnam. They placed them in boxes and were ready to load them on trucks,' said Captain Eng Peotith, a military policeman assigned to Cambodia's Wilderness Protection Unit.

The animals were released into the wild two days after their rescue. Owners of the warehouses were only warned to stop illegal trading in wildlife. They received no punishment since Cambodia still does not have a law for prosecuting such offenders, Mr Eng Poetith said.

Despite repeated crackdowns by the authorities, the absence of legal sanctions has meant that traders have little to fear in buying and selling wild animals.

Cambodian restaurants offer a variety of wild-meat dishes, which are believed to enhance sexual virility and cure various ailments.

Conservationists have sounded alarms about the increasing danger that catchers and traders are posing to Cambodia's once-abundant wildlife and are calling for urgent laws to protect it.

More than 225 animals regarded as endangered, including elephants, tigers and sun bears, were killed in Cambodia during an 18-month period ending last October, according to a report compiled by Cat Action Treasury, a US-based non-profit conservation group. --AP