The bird is out of the bag — if you try to smuggle an endangered animal into the country, you’ll have to pay dearly.
That’s what happened to two men charged with attempting to smuggle a black hornbill from Malaysia, according to a statement by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA).
Syed Muhammad Bin Syed Hassan and Mohammed Bin Ali were each fined S$4,000 each yesterday for the incident earlier this year.
The men were charged after Immigration & Checkpoints Authority officers at Woodlands checkpoint caught Syed, 29, carrying the baby bird in a paper bag on his motorcycle. After determining that Syed did not have the proper license for the bird, authorities alerted AVA and seized the animal.
But it was the subsequent investigation that led the AVA to Mohammed, 35, who had arranged for Syed Muhammad to deliver the chick to him.
A photo included in the statement showed the tiny confiscated chick squatting on an office table, looking upwards, obviously out of place. Native to Southeast Asia, black hornbills are considered major durian seed dispersers — so much so that they’re called Durian Burung (“durian bird”) in Malay.
The bird is now under the care of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
The black hornbill is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). While transporting any live animal without a license is illegal under the Animals and Birds Act, importing a protected species is also an offense, carrying a potential fine of up to $50,000 per animal.
Considering the offense, it seems like these two smugglers got off easy.
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