A slender loris climbs a cage after being seized by customs officials in Wenling, Zhejiang Province on June 4, 2013. It had illegally been sold to a private owner via smartphone app WeChat. Photo: CFP

 

"Just 80,000 yuan ($13,088) and the red panda is yours. You're welcome to come and see it yourself," read a text sent to a Global Times reporter on Monday.  

An online shop named "presale of superior pets" recently fell under the spotlight after it advertised red pandas for 160,000 yuan and fennec foxes for 80,000 yuan, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Sunday.

The shop owner was no longer available for comment when reached by the Global Times on Monday.

However, the shop's advertisement still openly bragged about its "superior pets" including chimpanzees, Japanese macaques and marmosets. It also listed some ivory products along with a photo of a complete tusk, young fennec foxes and baby macaques.  

The news stunned the people, as it is well known that the red panda is a first-class national protected animal in China. People were also shocked at how quickly the illegal exotic animal trade has reared its head again after recent crackdowns on the practice.

Lesson not learned

"If you have enough money, you can buy anything," said a Net user named Heibang in an online pet discussion group. Following this comment was a photo of two tiger cubs, which Heibang later introduced as Siberian tigers.

He also claimed that he could offer other protected animals like leopard cats and Asian golden cats as pets. Although he did not provide an exact price or details of where he got those animals, Heibang mentioned that some of those large cats may carry injuries from when they were captured.

Many group members are fervent fans of macaques, which are sold for 6,000 yuan each by Heibang. "They are clever and more like humans. You can teach them to help fetch you stuff," he said to the group.

None brought up the fact that macaques are a second-class national protected animal. Any trafficking will breach the Criminal Law and incur penalties of up to 10 years' imprisonment for both buyers and vendors.

Similarly, the slender loris is a popular pet, famous for its extraordinarily slow movement and thus is often easily caught by poachers. Several vendors reached by the Global Times said their lorises were either believed to have been imported from Southeast Asia or bred after they were caught from Yunnan Province with a price ranging from 2,000 to 3,500 yuan.

Slender lorises are easy animals to catch, and so too are the people who own them. Several cases of owners being jailed have been reported, as they are a first-class national protected animal.

"Don't worry too much. If you keep a low profile, you will not get in trouble. No one will bother to report you to the police or the forestry bureau," a Guangzhou-based loris vendor told the Global Times.

He then assured the reporter that he has successfully delivered several of them to Changping district in Beijing and none were found dead or detected during the journey, which can take up to six days. "They just slept through the trip," he said.

His online store, however, mainly sells women's clothing, with only one link selling squirrels at a price of one yuan each as a cover. Buyers can buy rare animals, but have to purchase the appropriate number of squirrels to match the agreed upon price.

Grim fates for animals

Zhang Xu, who owns a pet clinic in Hangzhou,Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times that wild pets often die when they are transported between cities and the death rate can exceed 50 percent once they fall ill as they are not in their natural environment.

"They cannot easily adapt to captive feeding. Some people try to keep a primate as a pet and I always persuade them to give the animals to local zoos," said Zhang.

Although safer, zoos have their own problems, Zhang noted. He conducted  surgery on a macaque on Monday, after it was returned from a local zoo because it was bullied by the other animals after being introduced into their social circle.

The animals are also lurking threats to their owners as they grow out of infancy. "A full-grown macaque can be 60 centimeters tall and its strength can match an adult male," Zhang warned.

Despite the warnings from experts, many Net users advocate the domestication of wild animals as they see it as one way to protect them from hunters and human activities.

"But it is actually inhumane for the animals," said Jiang Zhigang, a research fellow at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He told the Global Times that at best, keeping an exotic wild pet basically guarantees a "natural death" for a single animal, but the species' population can not grow as they do not have opportunities to reproduce.

Strangled by loopholes

According to the State Forestry Administration, one can apply for licenses to domesticate wild animals, but this is not the case when the animals are endangered. There are also restrictions on certain animals.

"There have not yet been any reports about people keeping a wild animal as a legal pet in China, although other countries like the US may allow it. I believe more exotic pets will be added to the 54 species open for nationwide domestication," said Jiang.

The international community is expected to celebrate the first World Wildlife Day on March 3 as the United Nations highlights the values and contributions of wild animals and plants, particularly endangered and protected species, amid serious global wildlife trafficking.

"The booming e-commerce market has added to the trouble faced by all nations, which now involves more species," Jiang said, adding that Chinese customs have been cracking down.

The customs office of Changchun, Jilin Province, seized 283 smuggled wild animals and arrested two suspects in 2012. Customs officers in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, seized endangered birds worth millions of yuan in 2013, and customs officials in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, intercepted animal products weighing six tons last year.

However, Jiang noted that illegal transactions still occur because corrupt officials worldwide tolerate the import and export of animals banned from trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and sometimes customs officers fail to recognize protected species.

Crystal Wang, a program officer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, suggested that website operators should more closely monitor posts containing illegal information and report them to the authorities.

"I hope the public will also be more aware of the damage done to these animals as well," said Wang.