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MORE THAN 30 wild animals, including pythons, tortoises, a slow loris and a marmoset have been seized from a flat in Singapore in the city’s largest such haul of banned wildlife in more than a decade, a government agency said yesterday.
The owner, who kept the animals in a public housing apartment, could be jailed for two years and fined up to $297,000, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said in a statement.
The 32 animals included a Sunda slow loris, a nocturnal tree-dwelling primate; a common marmoset, a small monkey with a long tail; and three ball pythons, which are popular in the pet trade because of their docile nature.
There were also three black-tailed prairie dogs, several types of tortoise, five ornate horned frogs, an iguana, a gecko and a degu, a small rodent endemic to central Chile.
“The seizure, which includes highly endangered and threatened species like the slow loris, marmoset, Indian star tortoise and ball python, is AVA’s largest inland seizure of wildlife since 2002,” the agency said in a statement.
“A man is currently assisting AVA in the investigations.”
Residents in public housing, where most Singaporeans live, are only allowed to keep approved pets such as non-endangered birds, aquarium fish and one small dog per household.
The animals, which were rescued earlier this month, are now in the care of a company running the Singapore Zoo, said the AVA, which raided the flat after a tipoff.
It warned the public that keeping illegal wildlife could pose health hazards and threaten the densely populated tropical island’s biodiversity if the animals enter the local environment.
- © AFP 2013.
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At this stage, we should just copy the Chinese model and shut down all events, flights and travel in and out of Europe for a couple of weeks. It will hurt for a while but need to keep the big picture in mind.
@Nomad: Nope.
It’s already here, clearly. And in reality, there was zero chance of stopping it, as long as trade, commerce and tourism were given priority. So now we just have roll the dice with the health system. As someone with parents in their 80s, one of whom spent Christmas in hospital with the flu, I can tell you it’s going to be a lot more ‘disappointing’ than cancelling the odd parade…
Just cancel all major up coming events, full stop lifes are more important than someone feelings
Call me naive, but the reason for the Ireland Italy game being cancelled, was due to a large influx of Italians potentially from the affected regions arriving here? Well then what about the 30/40 flights a day into ireland from italy carrying plenty of italian passengers? Same situation no?
@Robert Grant: Italy isn’t the only European country with detected cases, should we close down the airports and ports completely?
@Robert Grant: The cases in Italy are in the north and under quarnteen so they are not exactly all off boarding planes to Ireland
@Gavin Conran: ah stop that now…that would make sense
@Gavin Conran: So the planes are empty then??
@Gavin Conran: what I mean is it’s a contradiction to cancel the games and still allow people travel here from affected regions of that country. I’m sure the italians who were going to travel to the game have flights booked so I’m sure they will still come and make a weekend of it and frequent our bars, restaurants and be mixing with plenty of people. It’s just a contradiction in my opinion.
@Gavin Conran: I know some crew working in Bergamo Airport and even though the city is on a lock down, airport is still fully functioning, bringing at least 2 fully loaded planes to Dublin daily
@Robert Grant: The cancellation is about 50,000 people being in a confined space, even one person there with the virus could cause a catastrophy.
It was a good call to cancel the match
@Dave vickers: They answered Ireland’s call.
All them multinational tech companies having People come and go from all over the world. What could possibly go wrong? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s here already and HSE won’t release the news. As simple Simon says Ireland should expect ” a very big increase” in suspected corona virus cases in the next few week’s
@Stevo The Man On A Mission them dirty foreigners coming over here infectioning us with their dirty foreigner germs….
Get a grip their Stevo – it’s right to be cautious, but it’s wrong to get hysterical
@Dave Harris: ehhh what ?
@Stevo The Man On A Mission Returns: You should go on off to bed, lock your doors and just shrivel away.
@Ian Breathnach: It’s a completely anonymous account and makes outrageous statements. It has little courage. You should ignore it.
@Stevo The Man On A Mission Returns: they tuk err jerbbs
We’ve a lad here in this factory who returned yesterday from a skiing holiday in northern Italy. Our employer said dey got info saying hes fine so long as he doesnt show symptoms. I asked why are we relying on info from the most inept organisation in the country to keep us healthy
Probably a good thing they cancelled the Rugby match
Apparently the Clayton hotel in Dublin has just been closed off and men in hazmat suits seen entering. Could be precautionary, seen on Twitter
@Declan Edward: the jacks probably over flowed
@Declan Edward: there is no clayton Hotel on pearse St.
@OBean.ie: apologies, it’s only what I read earlier
It looks like it was a good call to cancel the match
No one is controlling anything its on the way a nd now its unstoppable
@Braonain Proinseas: What do you think is going to happen? In the space of 3 months the UK has 15 cases 9 of which have fully recovered and the rest still needing treatment or longer stays in hospital. Get some fckin perspective.
Quarantine people arriving into the republic or the virus will spread.
That video of the Clayton was posted over 12 hours ago. It was only for a few seconds and the 1 man didn’t even have anything in his hands, what was he going to check the person out with? More likely some idiot dressed up to try create hysteria. Nothing would surprise me in this town!
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