The successful rescue of 70 pangolins from the illegal wildlife trade has become a tragedy, as over 30 of the endangered creatures have died in captivity as a result of legal red tape.
The animals, which were put in the care of northern Vietnam's Cuc Phuong National Park three months ago, are unable to adapt to the captive conditions in the park, reports Tuoi Tre.
Cuc Phuong's Carnivore & Pangolin Conservation Program, a joint effort between the national park and nonprofit organization Save Vietnam's Wildlife, proposed the release of the rescued animals back into the wild, however their request was denied by police and forest protection agencies due to a legal restriction.
“We have proposed that competent agencies make a decision urgently to set free these precious, rare and endangered wild animals to nature but our expectation has not been met,” Tran Quang Phuong, manager of the program, told Tuoi Tre.
Phuong and his organization are now calling for an amendment to this regulation. In criminal cases such as the illegal trade of wildlife, Vietnamese law requires that rescued animals remain in captivity as evidence while their captors are brought to justice. However, the slow progress of these legal battles is killing the very creatures it is meant to protect.
On the flip side of this regulation, lawyer Vo Xuan Trung of the HCMC Bar Association also pointed out that investigators can still release wild animals back into nature under a clause in the law which permits extinuating circumstances for “exhibits being easy-to-deteriorate or difficult-to-preserve goods”, Trung told Tuoi Tre.
[Photo via Tin Moi Truong]
