Extreme Smuggling: Animals

ThylacineAlive

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Sorry if this is the wrong place but I don't know where else to post this- tonight (Jan. 28th) at 8PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel is a documentary called Extreme Smuggling: Animals which is about illegal exotic animal smuggling. Sorry if I posted this too late, hopefully there will be a rerun either later tonight or tomorrow!

~Thylo:cool:
 
Maybe this could be on the TV shows forum.

If you do watch the show, then be sure to post a review.
 
Will it be on british TV? (I don't have sky or any other tv networks, just freeview)
If not is there a website where I can view it for free?
 
Will it be on british TV? (I don't have sky or any other tv networks, just freeview)
If not is there a website where I can view it for free?

It might not be out for a while but it should eventually get on YouTube. I'll keep an eye on it and post it when I find it. I have to warn you though it's a very sad and angering subject that put me in a very sour mood for the rest of the evening. The extremely small punishment that comes with these horrific crimes is rediculous! Wildlife crime is a high paying, low risk business where, and these were real examples talked about on the program, you can poach and cook endangered species and only get a fine, almost wipe out an entire species (a species that didn't recover from one person's actions for 10 years) and only get 21 months in prison, and spend a lifetime capturing and selling everything from Ring-Tailed Lemurs to Spix's Macaws and only get 7 months in prison. I'm furious!

~Thylo:cool:
 
There's a website called dollarTVnet.com that says I can watch it for free, don't completely trust it though
 
There's a website called dollarTVnet.com that says I can watch it for free, don't completely trust it though

Yeah I went to find it online and I was brought there as well. It doesn't work and according to my internet security the links it brings you to are for **** sites.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Be careful guys. Those 'free' websites are often links to adult websites that are generally no good for you or your computer.

Be patient, Epic. The doco will be out in Scotland soon. In the mean time here are some free docos to keep you going: Top Documentary Films - Watch Free Documentaries Online

Yes I don't trust any websites that I haven't heard of and I usually research the site if one has something I really want to watch on it. It's only a matter of time before the documentary is up online on a clean site.

~Thylo:cool:
 
The New York Times has a related article:

Thailand Faces a Noah's Ark Sized Burden


It details the boom in animals that have been seized from smugglers across Thailand. While ideally they'd be returned to the wild, might these animals become future genetic diversity in the captive population? The article indicates that zoos aren't interested, but I have hard time imaging any zoo turning down a new tiger (or three) and a new orangutan.
 
That was really sad, The sentances are far too short for people who bring species to the brink of extinction. 6 years for someone who was selling spix macaws to name one endangered species.
One of the most depressing sights was seeing a restaurant killing bornean bay cats for meat.

I really can't describe my anger. I urge anyone who hasn't seen It to watch it and see how bad illegal wildlife smuggling is.
 
It details the boom in animals that have been seized from smugglers across Thailand. While ideally they'd be returned to the wild, might these animals become future genetic diversity in the captive population? The article indicates that zoos aren't interested, but I have hard time imaging any zoo turning down a new tiger (or three) and a new orangutan.

There should be a real ethical dilemma here for zoo people but most do not want to face it.

At our Zoo Aquarium Association conference last August we heard from a bloke from TRAFFIC. He told of literally thousands of animals confiscated from smugglers. Many of these were specimens of CITES 1 species. They can't be returned to the wild because their provenance is not known. Being wild caught, their genes would be immensely valuable to zoo captive breeding programs around the world. Yet the vast majority of these animals are destroyed. Why? Because that way a message is sent to the smugglers and potential smugglers that smuggling doesn't pay.

As the numbers of confiscated animals is not decreasing, it would seem that this "message" is not having any effect. Sadly, not one zoo person at that conference wanted to tackle the subject - except for you know who!:(
 
There should be a real ethical dilemma here for zoo people but most do not want to face it.

At our Zoo Aquarium Association conference last August we heard from a bloke from TRAFFIC. He told of literally thousands of animals confiscated from smugglers. Many of these were specimens of CITES 1 species. They can't be returned to the wild because their provenance is not known. Being wild caught, their genes would be immensely valuable to zoo captive breeding programs around the world. Yet the vast majority of these animals are destroyed. Why? Because that way a message is sent to the smugglers and potential smugglers that smuggling doesn't pay.

As the numbers of confiscated animals is not decreasing, it would seem that this "message" is not having any effect. Sadly, not one zoo person at that conference wanted to tackle the subject - except for you know who!:(

I am not sure that I follow the logic of destroying animals instead of sending them to zoos so as to send a message to smugglers to stop smuggling. The message I get is "those animals are so insignificant that we can destroy them - it's not like they're endangered". It's not like the smugglers get compensated if you send the animals to a zoo.....
 
Well wouldn't many of the Tiger be Indochinese, a subspecies the AZA doesn't want to deal with in North America or Europe? If that's the case then these animals should be sent to a zoo in Asia to be bred and cared for and not locked up in a cage when they were wild born. Same with the orangs (which could be sent to America or Europe), the Leopards, and all the other animals.

~Thylo:cool:
 
well that was depressing. Humans really do suck. One hand is trying to conserve animals and a hundred others are trying to destroy them.

One of the most depressing sights was seeing a restaurant killing bornean bay cats for meat.
just in the interests of accuracy, that was Cambodia and the photo they were using as an ID guide was an Asian golden cat.
 
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