The People’s Court of Vinh Cuu district, the southern province of Dong Nai, gave imprisonment sentences to shooters of a gaur in a provincial sanctuary during a trial on April 25. 

Accordingly, Le Nguyen Anh Hung, 21, was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of violating regulations on protecting endangered species in need of priority protection and additional two years behind bar for illegally storing and using military weapons. 

Le Thanh Son, 44, Hung’s father, received a 12-month suspended sentence for illegally storing and using military weapons, and Le Minh Tien, 33, got a 9-month imprisonment sentence, for violating regulations on protecting endangered species in need of priority protection. 

According to the verdict, Hung bought 100 bullets for 1.7 million VND from an unknown person in February 2016. On February 26, Hung and Pham Thanh Liem, 16, brought a gun and five bullets to the provincial sanctuary where they shot to death a gaur weighing nearly 200kg. 

They later cut up 51kg of the animal’s meat and sold to a woman in the southern province of Binh Phuoc at the price of 6.1 million VND. 

On March 11, Hung and Tien were arrested by Vinh Cuu district’s police while they were on the run in Binh Phuoc. 

Upon learning that his son shot the gaur, Son kept the gun in his house and only handed over it when being investigated by the police. 

The gaur has been listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986.

VNA