The Illegal Jaguar Trade Is Thriving Online. Why Aren't Governments Stopping It?

[Judi Lynn]

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society analyzes the buying and selling of trafficked jaguar parts online, revealing that most of the activity is happening in Latin America with little or no response from law enforcement.

February 25, 2023 by Mongabay

By Maxwell Radwin

• A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society analyzes the buying and selling of trafficked jaguar parts online, revealing that most of the activity is happening in Latin America with little or no response from law enforcement.
  
  
• Researchers reviewed online archives of popular social media sites and online marketplaces for posts related to jaguar sales between 2009 and 2019.
  
  
• Teeth and skins were the most traded parts, and were commonly destined for China and other Asian countries.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — Purchasing illegal jaguar parts — from teeth to skins to claws — doesn’t always involve seeking out the dark, nefarious corners of the black market. Often, they can be found with a quick Google search. Or by pursuing social media sites and online marketplaces.

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society analyzes just how easy it is to buy and sell trafficked jaguar parts online, revealing that most of the activity is happening in Latin America with little or no response from law enforcement.

“The buyers are on the surface of the internet, on social media,” said Kurt Duchez, a report co-author and WCS Wildlife Trafficking Officer for Central America. “It’s all sitting in plain sight. You just have to look for it.”

Duchez and other researchers reviewed online archives of popular social media sites and online marketplaces for posts related to jaguar sales between 2009 and 2019. The search was done in seven languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese) across 19 countries.

More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-illegal-jaguar-trade-is-thriving-online-why-arent-governments-stopping-it/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Bastards sell their souls for fentanyl and cocaine...

Why stop stop for wild cat coats?

[Duppers]

2. Closing these markets would stop the "trade."

Teeth and skins were the most traded parts, and were commonly destined for China and other Asian countries.

China is the biggest culprit in the ivory trade too. Some countries have no respect for the lives of animals.

I cringe whenever I've picked up orders from the local Chinese restaurant and see the Ivory displayed in their cases.

From the article:
"Little or no response from law enforcement."

Why? The usual reason? They're being paid off too?


Thanks for posting this, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Desperately wrong to hunt these furry wonders.

Chinese markets also are the killers encouraging Mexican fishing crews to comb the Gulf of Mexico searching for totoalba fish, close to extinction, to eat their swim bladders only, taking with them, vaquita porpoises of which there may only be 9 individuals left.

Mexico dismantles illegal fishing cartels killing off rare vaquita porpoise
by Maxwell Radwin on 5 January 2023

. . .

Totoaba bladders can go for between $20,000 and $80,000 per kilo, Mongabay previously reported, earning them the nickname “the cocaine of the sea.”

The arrested cartel members were Mexican and Chinese. They provided fishermen with the expensive nets needed to catch totoaba and then smuggled their bladders to China — often on commercial flights.

Last year, Mongabay reported on the difficulty of developing conservation measures for the vaquita, as some experts believe the issue should be left to crime specialists, not biologists or activists.

Mexico’s Gulf of California, where the illegal fishing of totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) takes place, is also home to the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a porpoise approximately five feet (1.5 meters) long that often gets caught in the fishing nets. As a result, there are only around nine vaquita left, experts believe, leading to a growing response from the government and conservation groups to set up patrols and monitoring systems.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/mexico-dismantles-illegal-fishing-cartel-killing-off-rare-vaquita-porpoise/

~ ~ ~

The very thought of anyone murdering the jaguars is overwhelmingly tragic, hateful, and stupid.

Taking ivory is every bit as evil, as well. Unbearably stupid, greedy, barbaric.

You're right, displaying ivory is ignorant, too, once it's known how it's done. What a price to pay for human vanity.

[2naSalit]

3. K&R