RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Cramped to­geth­er in wick­er bas­kets and cages— ba­by mon­keys, par­rots and a macaw were res­cued by po­lice dur­ing an ex­er­cise in south Trinidad yes­ter­day.

This was re­vealed by game war­den Steve Seep­er­sad who has led the charge in the fight against the il­le­gal pet trade in south Trinidad.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia out­side the Fyz­abad Po­lice Sta­tion, Seep­er­sad said the smug­gling of pro­tect­ed an­i­mals through the porous bor­ders of the South West­ern penin­su­la has dou­bled with­in re­cent times, de­spite an in­crease in fines.

He said the Forestry Di­vi­sion, as well as the Fyz­abad po­lice, searched a house at Red Brick Trace, and seized 14 ba­by mon­keys, 17 yel­low-head­ed par­rots and one macaw.

A Venezue­lan na­tion­al was ar­rest­ed. The ba­by mon­keys were kept in wick­er bas­kets and one cage while the yel­low-head­ed par­rots were al­so caged. The mon­keys hud­dled to­geth­er and chat­tered as the me­dia took pho­tos. One was dead.

Seep­er­sad said the mon­keys will be sent to the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo for safe­keep­ing. He said the po­lice were in the process of get­ting a trans­la­tor to in­ter­view the Venezue­lan man.

Seep­er­sad said he was dis­ap­point­ed that peo­ple were con­tin­u­ing to bring in an­i­mals through the bor­ders un­der heart wrench­ing and in­hu­mane con­di­tions. He said the an­i­mals were be­ing tak­en from the South Amer­i­can main­land where they were in abun­dant sup­ply. How­ev­er, he said apart from gen­er­at­ing mon­e­tary gain, the il­le­gal pet trade posed dan­ger to the peo­ple of T&T.

“The way these an­i­mals are cap­tured is very in­hu­mane and the num­bers that are tak­en means that there could be a de­ple­tion in the pop­u­la­tion com­ing out of South Amer­i­ca and the Ama­zon,” Seep­er­sad said.

He added, “Al­so, there are lots of path­o­gen­ic dis­eases and pathogens that could be brought back through these an­i­mals that could af­fect our an­i­mal pop­u­la­tion and our peo­ple. Right now we are deal­ing with COVID 19 but we do not know what oth­er new dis­eases could be brought in here.”

He not­ed that once in­ves­ti­ga­tions are com­plete, charges will be laid. These in­clude 17 counts of pos­ses­sion of pro­tect­ed par­rots, 14 counts of pos­ses­sion of pro­tect­ed mon­keys and one count of pos­ses­sion of pro­tect­ed macaw.

Seep­er­sad al­so is­sued a call for cit­i­zens to de­sist from en­gag­ing in an­i­mal smug­gling.

In ear­ly June, three men were ar­rest­ed when they were caught throw­ing wick­er bas­kets of birds over­board af­ter they were in­ter­cept­ed by the T&T Coast Guard. A to­tal of 47 birds drowned.