VietNamNet Bridge – On the morning of July 3, the police saved rare animals raised in two farms in Ben Cat district in the southern province of Binh Duong.

The gibbons at a farm in Binh Duong.

The two farms are located in Cay San hamlet, Lai Uyen commune. They are owned by several officials of Binh Duong and have bred rare animals for years, reported Tuoi Tre Newspaper.

On the morning of July 3, dozens of environment policemen, rangers and officers of the Southern Institute of Ecology and Wildlife Conservation Association (WCS) burst into the farm of Mr. Nguyen Van Long and Ms. Nguyen Thi Diep Hong. The inspectors seized a peacock, a stuffed gibbon specimen and six gibbons, including a gibbon from the Hylobates pileatus species, which can be imported only when a license from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is obtained, said Dr. Hoang Minh Duc from the Southern Institute of Ecology.

Hong said the farm is owned by Mr. Long, a former member of the Binh Duong Provincial People’s Council.

At 10am of the same day, the police checked the nearby farm of Mr. Tran Van Loi. Mr. Nguyen Hue, the farm’s manager, said he was merely a hired worker of Mr. Loi, who is said the Party Secretary of Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province.

Hue and workers here confirmed that previously the farm had a lot of wild boars, ponies, crocodiles and two gibbons. The crocodiles, horses and wild boars were sold. Particularly, the two gibbons died some days ago. The inspectors seized three peacocks and 18 deer.

The same afternoon, the inspectors checked Huong Dong Restaurant in Tuong Binh Hiep commune and seized some rare birds.

The wild animals will be handed over to the Binh Duong Provincial Forest Protection Agency to handle in accordance with law.

On July 3, Mr. Tran Van Loi – Party Secretary and Chairman of Thu Dau Mot City told Tuoi Tre that he joined a friend to invest in this farm but the wild animals belonged to his brother in law, Mr. Nguyen Van Lap. The animals have been bred since 2002.

Mai Lan