16 Eagles Seized from Online Dealer in Surabaya
Illegal trade of protected wildlife species is still rampant in Surabaya, especialy on social media like Facebook. Based on public reports and investigation, the Police of East Java arrested a wildlife dealer and confiscated 16 eagles from various species.
Head of Public relation of East Java Police, Kombespol Argo Yuwono said that the arrest was made after the police got an infomration that the dealer is going to sell an eagle to a buyer. To the police, the dealer admit that he had been doing the dirty job for 6 months, and that the profit was good as he reaped millions from the illicit business.
"There are numbers of protected species on his list. After he receives an animal from poachers, he will advertise it on Facebook," explained Argo to Mongabay-Indonesia, Monday (6/7/2015).
From his house in Jalan Purwodadi, Jepara, Bubutan district, Surabaya, the police confiscated 16 eagles, unfortunately 4 were already dead. The eagles consist of Changeable Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus), White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster), Spotted Kestrel (Falco moluccencis), and hatchlings of White-bellied Sea Eagle. "Some of them were packed in cardboard boxes and ready to be sent to buyers."
Argo hopes that te general public would report to the authority if they find any wildlife species on sale. "We have a Cyber Crime Unit, but we still need the people to participate," added Argo. The confiscated eagles were handed over to the Natural Resource Conservation Agency of East Java for treatment.
The suspect, whose initial is PAS, will be charged for violating the Law no.5 of 1990 concerning the Conservation of Living Natural Resource and Its Ecosystem, juncto Government Regulation no.7 of 1999 on the Protected Plant and Wildlife Species, and he is liable to a maximum 5 years of prison and IDR 100 million fines.
The chairman of Protection of Forest & Fauna (PRFOAUNA), Rosek Nursahid, appreciates the police's good work. According to him, any unauthorized act of keeping or breeding wildlife species is a crime.
All eagle species is protected, no exception. If anybody keeps or breeds eagles without official permit from the government, then it is illegal. Means that the police have a right to stop it, and enforce the law," he said.
Rosek also highlighted on communities who claim to be animal lovers, yet they have no idea about the regulations. he believes that keeping wildlife as pets is unacceptable in any circumstances. Many 'eagle communities' claim to be breeding the birds, while in fact they bought the hatchlings from poachers or black market. They raise the eagles, and think that they have bred the birds. All in all, even keeping eagles eggs or dead eagles are still strongly forbidden by the law."
PROFAUNA, he stated, is going to oversee the cases of illegal wildlife trade to make sure that the criminals are punished accordingly, not minimally. Previously, the Disctrict Court of Surabaya gave only a 6 month prison sentence to an international scale wildlife dealer, Basuki Obko Raharjo. "The worrying part is on the judges and prosecutors. If the prosecutor charges low, it very rare that the judges will give longer sentence. And this happens a lot," he concluded.
Written by Petrus Risk, jurnalist of Mongabay