Wildlife hunting continues

Meanwhile, government agencies say they don’t know about the restaurants and have not discovered wildlife trafficking.

In early December, a new wildlife trapping season has come with communities of people living along old jungles in Gia Lai province.

Gia Lai has more wild animals than other areas. KBang and Mang Giang districts are located in Kon Ka Kinh National Park, Kon Chu Rang Natural Reserve, as well as afforestation yards and forestry companies that manage hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests.

More visitors flock to Pleiku City to attend gong festivals. However, instead of introducing the cultural beauty of the Central Highlands, enterprises take full advantage of the event to sell wild animals. A wild cat and civet sold for VND12 million at the trade fair. 

Bao Ve Rung & Moi Truong’s reporters, who were among the visitors to the city in festival season, were surprised when they were offered dishes made of wild animals at all restaurants they visited.

The owner of a restaurant said the wild animals were bought from locals living along natural forests in KBang district.

S.T, located at the center of Son Lang commune, just 100 meters far from the commune People’s Committee, is the best known restaurant in the locality. The owner of ST strongly recommended porcupine stomachs, saying this is a ‘specialty’ of the restaurant which is delicious and helps treat diseases.

The restaurant owner said that he could satisfy big orders. Besides porcupine stomach, he also had squirrel, forest bird, weasel and civet.

“We are the biggest supplier of wildlife meat. The meat for Hanoi and HCMC is also from here,” he said, explaining that Kon Ka Kinh National Park and Kon Chu Rang Natural Reserve are where wild animals are hunted.

A local man in Son Lang commune said people use guns to hunt big animals and use traps to catch small ones.

“The guns are hidden in the forests. They (hunters) don’t keep the guns at home. Ethnic minority people can go everywhere in the forests,” he said. “Forest rangers even ask them to help them set traps.”

Wildlife meat is available at restaurants in many other communes as well. At a grocery in Dak Smar commune, a monkey was chained just below a signboard on illegal wildlife hunting and logging.

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