Local helps secure sentencing of two animal traders
Two animal traffickers were recently sentenced in a Kempton Park court in arrests a Springs snake catcher was instrumental in securing.
The drama unfolded almost a year ago, in July 2016, when the Wildlife in Crisis organisation received a tip-off about men who were attempting to sell a pangolin.
Conrad Prinsloo, a Springs resident and a local snake catcher who is known to the organisation, found himself embroiled in a race against time to save the mammal from the unscrupulous animal traders as he became the main negotiator in the rescue effort.
“After being contacted by someone wanting to do the right thing with information they had, we created a WhatsApp group of key people to help effect the rescue of this animal,” says Prinsloo.
Communication was initiated with the seller by one of their team and a meeting was set for 10am the following day, July 5, 2016.
“Utter chaos and turmoil ensued as we scrambled to make sure everything was in place before the deadline,” says Prinsloo.
On the appointed selling day, they all wondered if the sellers would pitch or whether they had seen through their hastily set plan.
“At 10.15am our hearts sank at the thought of missing the chance to make a difference to this one endangered animal as we thought they weren’t going to show up,” says Prinsloo.
For an hour they all sat waiting and, finally, at 11.30am, four suspects were sprawled on the ground in handcuffs.
“With a rush of excitement and jubilation we were successful in saving the pangolin,” Prinsloo says.
He claims the negotiation with the animal traders took less than 12 hours.Prinsloo found the pangolin at about 3pm on July 5 and before noon the next day the animal was rescued and the four dealers arrested.
Fanie Masango, an environmental management inspector from the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD), was quickly pulled into the plan and he, in turn, contacted the police.
The necessary documentation was completed at a clinic and the pangolin was finally rushed through to a waiting wildlife veterinarian, Dr Angela Bruns, in Pretoria.
“We also contacted Darren Pietersen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group, and Sean Heighton, a student of the Mammal Research Institute.
Bruns and Pietersen immediately set about doing what was necessary for the pangolin.
Three and a half hours later, the pangolin was again taken through to Wildlife in Crisis to be monitored through the night.
Prinsloo says in less than 30 hours after the meeting with the animal traffickers, the pangolin was set free in Limpopo.
“We hope those who see this pangolin as no more than a mere commodity from which to make a quick illegal buck, feel the full wrath of our law, and will learn to respect that all wildlife on this planet is sacred and not theirs for the taking and trading,” says Prinsloo.
* Two of the four suspects received a R5 000 fine and a three year sentence, suspended for five years. The other two suspects were released without being charged.
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