They’re cute, snuggly and exotic, but the officers of the Immigration Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority are having none of that adorable nonsense, especially when it comes to illegal trading of animals.
ICA officers were conducting a routine check on a Singapore-registered taxi ferrying a 26-year-old male Malaysian at Woodlands Checkpoint when they uncovered two four-toed hedgehogs and a leopard gecko in his belongings. The adorable little hedgehogs were hidden inside a shoe box while the not-so-cute gecko was placed in a small plastic container kept in the passenger’s zip pouch.
He was handed over to the AVA for investigations, and was fined a composition sum of $1,500 under the Animals and Birds Act for the illegal import of animals. The little critters have been sent to the Singapore Zoo.
AVA maintains the position that animals such as geckos and hedgehogs do not make suitable pets as some may transmit zoonotic diseases to humans, and can pose a safety risk should they be mishandled or escape into the Singapore environment. Being non-native species, they can also pose a threat to biodiversity should they be released into the wild.
Photo: Tiffany Bailey via Flickr; ICA newsroom
