VietNamNet Bridge – Many gibbons, langurs, loris in the deep jungle have been hunted, bred in captivity to entertain people. Others have been killed to turn into the special dishes served at the parties of the rich.

Tran Thanh Binh, Head of the Lam Dong provincial forest rangers’ unit, showed the images of tens of gibbons, weasels, deer and wild boars with cut heads, saying that all of the wild animals were massacred by a group of 13 poachers just within one night on the contiguous area between the Bidoup – Nui Ba (Lam Dong province) and Chu Yang Sin National Parks (Dak Lak province).

About 300 kilos of wildlife meat was seized by the police and forest rangers. This did not include the meat the poachers threw away to the river.

Binh said the poachers used the “specialized weapons” from which even the small animals cannot escape.

“This is the biggest gang of wildlife poachers in the south of the Central Highlands with the highest number of poachers, weapons and the record number of wild animals killed within one night,” Binh said.

After the case was discovery, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) decided to support Lam Dong City to raze the wildlife poaching rings and discover the restaurants that serve wildlife meat.

Just within one day, wildlife meat was discovered at 10 restaurants in Da Lat City. About 300 kilos of rare wild animal meat were stored at refrigerators to be made the specialty food.

On the next days, 50 kilos of wildlife meat was found at the other 17 restaurants in Bao Loc City and some other districts of Lam Dong province.

On May 7, a 3-year old gibbon (Hylobates gabriellae) was set free and brought to the Cat Tien National Park. Two weeks ago, the Dak Lak provincial authorities persuaded Nguyen Cong Truong in Ea Sup district to give back a gibbon he had breeding for many years to the national park.

Sixty percent of the inspected restaurants were found as illegally trading and storing wildlife meat, the figure, according to experts, was alarmingly high.

An officer of the Cat Tien National Park said that gibbons and langurs are the most wanted by poachers. The demand for gibbon and langur meat has been increasing rapidly following the rumor that their meat can help men become red blooded.

There are some “luckier” animals, which have not been killed, but they have been put in captivity just to entertain people. The owners of the animals could be either individuals, households, enterprises or agencies.

It was quite a surprise that many enterprises and agencies told the police that they did not know these were the red book’s animals which need to be protected.

While many people try to kill animals, many others have been trying their best to protect them.

Tran Quoc Viet in Kon Tum province reportedly rescued two langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus )1.5 months ago. A stranger came to see him to offer to sell the two langurs, one of them was injured because of the trap and suffered diarrhea. Viet, though realizing that these were rare wildlife animals, told the stranger that they were just normal monkeys and bought them at one liter of vegetable oil and 10 instant noodle packs. After that, he gave them back to the Kon Tum forest rangers’ unit.

Lan, a teacher, bought a langur at VND11 million and then gave it to the Cat Tien National Park.

Tien Phong