Poach­ers caught

A Ch­agua­nas pet shop own­er was ar­rest­ed on Sat­ur­day while at­tempt­ing to sell six ca­puchin mon­keys and four mo­ro­coys tor­tois­es to a pair of game war­dens.Ac­cord­ing to re­ports around 3 pm on Sat­ur­day, the war­dens, pos­ing as cus­tomers, vis­it­ed the man's Ed­in­burgh Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, store.While look­ing through the stop the war­dens no­ticed the pro­tect­ed an­i­mals were be­ing dis­played for sale in their en­clo­sures.

Both species are na­tive to T&T.The own­er of the store told the war­dens that the mon­keys were be­ing sold for $2,500 and mo­ro­coys were $500 each.The war­dens then iden­ti­fied them­selves and ar­rest­ed the busi­ness­man.He was lat­er charged for of­fer­ing pro­tect­ed an­i­mals for sale con­trary to the Con­ser­va­tion of Wildlife Act.The of­fences car­ry a fine of $200 or 30 days' im­pris­on­ment.The busi­ness­man and the an­i­mals will ap­pear in the Ch­agua­nas Mag­is­trates' Court this morn­ing.