Guest guest Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Chinese bear cub poachers foiled BBC News Online 11/03/03 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2840569.stm Customs officials in Russia have prevented an attempt to smuggle bear cubs from the country's Far East to China. Three one-month-old bear cubs were found in the compartment of a Chinese locomotive engineer at a small railway station near the Russian-Chinese border, the Itar-Tass news agency said. The animals had been tranquilised and put into a cardboard box for the journey to China. The officers also found two sacks bulging with more than 1,200 squirrel and fox skins in the driver's compartment. The Chinese engineer is to face criminal charges. Russian border guards are put on heightened alert with the approach of summer - the season when Chinese cross-border poachers are at their most active. Last April, they rescued 17 bear cubs being taken to China inside apple cartons at a border crossing in the Primorye Territory, north of Vladivostok. A month later, guards in the same area caught two Chinese citizens trying to smuggle severed bear paws and a tiger skin out of Russia. The 32 Himalayan bear paws were frozen and ready wrapped for sale back home, where they are considered to be delicacies. - Dave Neale Animals Asia Foundation Find out more about the historic China Bear Rescue by visiting the Animals Asia Foundation website at http://www.animalsasia.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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