Police Arrest 25 in a Reptile Poaching Sting in New York
People in countries like China will pay a premium price for snapping turtles, venomous snakes and salamanders, and people around the U.S. are capturing and selling those animals illegally. Green Daily reported earlier on similar problem in Florida. There Florida's turtle population is being threatened by people capturing animals that are or are not yet protected, then selling them oversees or in places like L.A.'s Chinatown.
In this sting federal officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife as well as state officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation went undercover for two years to gather evidence against 25 people operating in New York, Canada, Pennsylvania and Maryland. More than 2,400 animals, many of them protected were documented in illegal sales and poaching.
[Seattle Times via AP]












