Police in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam have taken criminal proceedings against a local man for unlawfully keeping live wild animals and storing wildlife body parts at his home.

Trinh Ngoc Dong, 41, a resident in the province’s Di Linh District, has been prosecuted on charges of violating regulations on management and protection of endangered, rare animals, as prescribed in the Vietnamese Penal Code, local police reported on Monday.

Dong, let out on bail now, has also been fined VND355.5 million (US$15,620) for his offense.

The man was previously caught capturing live wide animals including a clouded monitor, a three-kilogram pangolin, 20 chevrotains, 10 Asian palm civets, and 13 black squirrels.

About 35 kilograms of the meat and bones of a chamois, along with its head, were detected in the man’s house.

All the animals are classified as endangered, precious, and rare species under Decree No. 06 issued by the Vietnamese government in 2019.

Dong also raised common forest animals such as brush tailed porcupine and bamboo rats.

Endangered wildlife products are strictly banned from being traded in, imported to or exported from Vietnam as they are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which the country has been party since 1994.

Under Vietnam’s Penal Code, transporting, trading, capturing or killing wild animals or parts thereof is a criminal offense punishable by six months to 12 years in prison.

On November 30 last year, a court in Dak Lak Province gave 33-year-old Nguyen Thanh Tung a jail term of seven years for illegally capturing 14 live clouded monitor lizards, along with a fine of VND10 million ($438), according to national radio station Voice of Vietnam.

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