what happens to the animals seized?

H

hippophilic

Member
Hi all,

I read the article on the bbc website about customs seizures of illegal wildlife artifacts as well as live big cats and tortoises.

Does anyone know what happens to these animals? Do they go back to where they came from or end up in uk zoos?

Cheers in advance.
 
hippophilic said:
Hi all,

I read the article on the bbc website about customs seizures of illegal wildlife artifacts as well as live big cats and tortoises.

Does anyone know what happens to these animals? Do they go back to where they came from or end up in uk zoos?

Cheers in advance.
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Hmm 1st time poster eh?

I can't comment on all the animals seized, but some end up in zoos.

Another good reason for having Zoos.

And Welcome by the way.
 
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the answer is variable. Where live animals are concerned sometimes they go to zoos or rescue centres, sometimes they are destroyed. Very rarely would they go back to the place of origin.

Artifacts (e.g. corals, stuffed animals, etc) are either destroyed, or kept in the Customs collections. Some may go to museums as well.
 
When I worked at Dudley we often got reptiles, amphibians, inverts, etc, which were confiscated by customs or found in fruit etc but I can't remember anything larger showing up. Unlikely that you'd smuggle a tiger through air tho!
 
Chlidonias said:
the answer is variable. Where live animals are concerned sometimes they go to zoos or rescue centres, sometimes they are destroyed. Very rarely would they go back to the place of origin.

Artifacts (e.g. corals, stuffed animals, etc) are either destroyed, or kept in the Customs collections. Some may go to museums as well.
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Some zoos use them (non live specimens) in educational displays too.
 
Artefacts and live animals are also passed onto private collections, these are assessed before hand via customs and always legally remain under the ownership of customs.
 
Some items which are seized by customs, or donated from other sources, also can`t be used for educational displays for legal reasons such as ivory for instance but another particular example I was aware of involved some stuffed Birds of Paradise, which although were very old, could not be accepted and I believe were destroyed (?)
 
I don't think that's a set rule Nanook, I think it's probably down to the individual zoo to reject ivory etc.
I know 100% that seized ivory is still loaned out to collections but if no collection is willing to take the item on then as you rightly said it is incinerated a long with all the other seized goods (weapons, drugs etc)
 
stubeanz said:
I don't think that's a set rule Nanook, I think it's probably down to the individual zoo to reject ivory etc.
I know 100% that seized ivory is still loaned out to collections but if no collection is willing to take the item on then as you rightly said it is incinerated a long with all the other seized goods (weapons, drugs etc)
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Yes absolutely, it depends on both the sensitivities of the items and the zoo involved. CITES Appendix 1 items are the usual problem.
 
I know one of the servals at chester was a confiscation at customs (something to do with paper work)

Also, i was informed of a private parrot keeper having an impressive and regularly breeding collection and when it was discovered what he had they confiscated every bird and sent them to zoos and locked him up as he lacked paperwork for a very small number of birds (he claimed to have them before paperwork was needed by cities) but due to the lack of paperwork for the few birds he couldn't prove they were legal (which meant the offspring were questionable when he registered them) unfortunately the zoos they sent the birds to had no experience of keeping them and every bird died!
Once they were all deceased they released the man from prison for lack of evidence i believe? I cannot find any public information on this subject and suspect it was covered up as it wouldn't look good on the people involved but if anyone has information on this i would like to read it .... Even if it means i was given the wrong information
 
@Hevden, you may probably be thinking of Harry Sissen who was guilty as sin
 
Chlidonias said:
@Hevden, you may probably be thinking of Harry Sissen who was guilty as sin
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Indeed! The 'few birds' included three Lear's macaws, which are held in conditions of great secrecy, but they have bred and are still alive (as far as we know).
See previous threads about the Lear's and the Blue Macaws website's page News about Harry

Alan
 
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Of course, one wonders what will end up happening to those Lears Macaws considering the following three facts:

1) The collection holding them denies vehemently they have, or indeed ever had, them.
2) They cannot be moved to a new collection due to their infection with PDV, nor can their offspring be included in the studbook.
3) The collection is not doing too well at present, and may not last for many more years.

Got to say, it is quite frustrating to know that such an unusual species is only an hour away from me on the train!
 
What ever happened to Harry Sissen? Did he die? Did he return to breed birds? The website just ends abruptly after he was on hunger strike...
 
He was still alive as of a year ago, when he created a youtube profile which he used to upload a series of videos about himself.
 
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