Got this piece of news in my NABA email:
This morning National Public Radio's Weekend Edition had an interesting piece on a man in Japan who smuggled endangered butterflies and the US Fish and Wildlife Service's effort to catch him.
"Newcomer of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went undercover to trap an international butterfly thief. Assuming an alias for three years, he caught a man who touted himself as "the world's most-wanted butterfly smuggler."
You can access the podcast via:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10480401
You can contact NPR and thank them for covering this story by clicking on http://www.npr.org/contact/ .
I sat at my computer and listened to it...it's about seven minutes long. Talks about the smuggler/trafficker of endangered species using eBay and PayPal!!! Very interesting! Just click on the listen button on that website.
WOW!!! Glad the Feds got him!
~ Cat
This message was edited May 27, 2007 9:04 PM
US Fish & Wildlife Service Agent Nets Butterfly Smuggler
I had seen the exotic butterflies for sale before and thought he should be stopped. How could he possibly have a legal permit?, I thought....
I will indeed scribe a note of grattitude.. way to go feds!
;-D
I guess if there is a market for something there will be people trying to profit from it! Glad the feds got him!
Found something else it might be:
Disonycha Leaf Beetle
Ha! Glad they got em!
~Adrienne
so happy they caught the guy.
It was a slow day so I surfed the net reading up on the butterfly smuggler...so many articles to read...all quite fascinating!!!
Guess some folks just never thought to compare an endangered species of butterfly to something like a white tiger or other bigger animal on the endangered species list.
~ Cat