Sometimes Words Just Fail Me.....

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-56564326

[Ellipsis]

Yep, I was just reading that. Absolute scum.

[ToraToraTora]

I'd like to wrap the savages in cling film and shove them into a suit case, then lob the suit case over the side. How can humankind have generated such slime?

[emmie]

mankind hasn't been kind to animals in all sorts of ways. smuggling, killing them for sport, i know we eat animals, so maybe shouldn't say too much, but i was watching a little bit of a David Attenborough programme where man has almost killed off the Tasmanian devil, and other species that once roamed freely. More tigers are in captivity in USA than left in the wild - one could go on i guess.

[bluemoon1]

It's the buyers that want punishing, if there was no market for such things it wouldn't happen.

[jim360]

When has it ever not, sadly.

It's a small mercy that only ten of the tortoises died. I hope the rest are well-cared for, and glad that the perpetrators appear to have been caught. But arguably the bigger problem is that the market exists at all.

[pastafreak]

It's a miracle more didn't die. Yes, give those smugglers the same treatment they gave those poor creatures.

[emmie]

pet collectors, dog thefts, the list is endless. Ross Kemp has or had a new programme out on wild animals being kept in captivity in UK, some 4,000 rare creatures that won't see their native homes,
like the tigers they couldn't be returned to the wild, as they wouldn't survive, there were lions, tigers one man had a house full of venamous snakes, what is wrong with these people - or governmement who fail to stop it.

[emmie]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/ross-kemp-trail-uks-tiger-23798087

[pixie374]

Bluemoon, I think it's the sellers that are the problem. People can't buy something that's unavailable. I used to want a tortoise when I was younger, but was told they were no longer imported.
Animal cruelty should have much more severe consequences, but just now, animals are treated as "goods", "possessions" - or a dog in a car, is a "load". They aren't seen as living animals.

[Sqad]

Just a thought.
Baby turtles have an extremely poor survival rate in the wild reports of 1 survival in 1,000 births reach adulthood.
I suppose that only 10 dead in a batch of 185 is a good result, although we don't know how many would have died before reaching adulthood in captivity.

[tiggerblue10]

Poor babies! Even though some sadly died, I'm glad they were seized.

There was a report in the news last week about the decline in elephant numbers again. So sad but what can be done about these poachers?

[pixie374]

Sqad, to me, there is a difference between nature and a natural life- however risky. And animals suffering for people to make money.

[Sunk]

The rapid decline of Galápagos tortoises had nothing to do with animal smugglers. From 250,000 they were exploited until just 3,000 in the 1970s. Thankfully numbers have risen slightly to 19,000, though they are extinct of 3 island habitats where they used to live.

They were killed for meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals to the islands, such as rats, goats, and pigs.

It is this past exploitation which has done the damage to the species. Modern day smugglers are a scourge, but they are feeding a demand from collectors who primarily do not want to kill the Galápagos tortoise, and in fact may want to breed them (because they are profitable).

[Ellipsis]

> Baby turtles have an extremely poor survival rate in the wild reports of 1 survival in 1,000 births reach adulthood.

I don't think that's true of Galapagos turtles. They have no natural predators ...

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_tortoise
> Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. This decline was caused by overexploitation of the species for meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals to the islands, such as rats, goats, and pigs. The extinction of most giant tortoise lineages is thought to have also been caused by predation by humans or human ancestors, as the tortoises themselves have no natural predators.

[Ellipsis]

Oops, I see that others have said likewise, much before me!

[wolf63]

I find the theft of dogs in our country quite disconcerting.

When I was younger I used to go for walks with my dog by the River Tay at night if I couldn't sleep. I never questioned that he would protect me. He was part GSD and part Scooby-Doo.

These days we are more afraid of being attacked and our dogs being stolen.

The world has gone totally crazy. All these people think about is how much money they can sell animals for.

A family pet is much more than 'just a cat' or 'just a dog' and yet the thieves only see the monetary value of an item that can be sold.

[Mamyalynne]

A heartless crime, thank goodness so many were rescued.

[Sunk]

People buy expensive dogs that cost thousands of pounds.
Those dogs get stolen because breeding them will earn the dog nappers thousands of pounds per pup.
It is very easy to break that cycle. If you like dogs, re-home one from the dogs home that has no monetary value. There will be no money in stealing your mutt.

[pixie374]

It doesn't quite work like that, Sunk. Nowadays, there are hundreds of people on waiting lists for rescues, the dogs are a few hundred. Every dog has a monetary value now.
Just pure demand and supply, will tell you that the fewer dogs there are, the more they cost. But we don't want to go overboard again.

[Sunk]

// Just pure demand and supply, will tell you that the fewer dogs there are, the more they cost. //

We don’t have fewer dogs. In 1970 there were 5 million in the UK. Today there are 10 million.