Police arrest killer of wild animals in Vietnam’s Central Highlands
Monday, January 08, 2024, 16:58 GMT+7
Police in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region, have detained a man who shot dead endangered wild animals of various species, used their meat for food, and soaked their genitals with alcohol in jars.
The provincial police department on Sunday said they had arrested a local man, 34-year-old Ha Van Suoi, for investigation on charges of ‘violating regulations on protection of endangered, precious, and rare animals.’
The arrest was made after a police team of the province’s Lac Duong District received a tip-off from the public about Suoi having hunted and killed wild animals using an airgun for months.
Searching his residence, the team seized the gun, lead bullets, and wild animal carcasses of many species included in the list of endangered, precious, and rare species prioritized for protection under a government decree.
Police officers also confiscated from the man a total of 43 parts of wild animals, including two feet of white pheasants, one foot and one sex organ of the civet, two feet of black-shanked douc langurs, 10 feet of red giant flying squirrels, 21 feet of spotted giant flying squirrels, and six feet of small sloth-monkeys.
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| Some of the 43 parts of the endangered wild animals killed by Ha Van Suoi in forests in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region. Photo: Pham Ngan / Tuoi Tre |
Suoi, who has been put in four-month temporary detention, confessed to investigators that he bought the gun for VND6 million (US$248) from a stranger through social media in February 2023.
He said he left his house at about 5:00 pm every day from April to late November 2023, and went along a trail leading to the forests in Lac Duong’s Dung K’No Commune for hunting.
At the end of each hunting day, Suoi carried the killed wild animals home, where he processed their meat and bones into food, while immersing their legs and genitals in jars filled with alcohol.
Endangered wild animals are strictly protected in Vietnam under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which the country has been party since 1994.
Pursuant to 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.
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