On Wednesday, a 44-year-old woman was detained at the Bangkok train station with the carcasses of protected wildlife. One of the more than 60 carcasses is a dead pangolin.

Officials from the National Resources and Environmental Crime Division apprehended her and took her into custody. She was a Nathawi district resident of Songkhla, according to the police, and had gone to the station to pick up a delivery that had just arrived by train. Before her arrival, police were already waiting at Chana station because they were aware that dead animals from Narathiwat's Sukhirin district would be arriving.

BANGKOK: Carcasses in Freight Carriage

The woman, the suspect, was waiting on the platform when train No. 448, route Surat Thani-Sungai Kolok, arrived at around 11 AM. Styrofoam sacks and boxes were removed from the freight car and put in the back of her vehicle, which was parked outside the train station. Then, police closed in to search.

Inside the boxes and sacks, they found the carcasses of the following:

  • 2 langurs, weighing 9.5kg in total
  • 54 squirrels, weighing 10.5kg in total
  • 7 Bengal monitor lizards weighing 10 kg in total
  • 1 pangolin weighing 4.5kg in total
  • 2 mouse deer weighing 2.5kg in total
  • 2 civets weighing 10.5kg in total

The woman allegedly acknowledged ordering the animal corpses from a contact in the Chana district of Narathiwat. She planned to deliver them to Chana district buyers.

The woman was charged with illegal possession of wildlife carcasses per the Wildlife Act of 2019, according to police, who did not disclose the woman's name. The maximum punishment for the offense is ten years in prison and/or a fine of one million baht, Bangkok Post reports.

TAIWAN: Carcasses in a Home Freezer

Meanwhile, a man has been detained by Pingtung County prosecutors on suspicion of killing a Formosan black bear, and several other people are being looked into as potential accomplices.

Following reports of illegal poaching and the killing of wild animals, police conducted a raid on Friday last week and detained a man with the last name Yen who lives in the Wutai Township of Pingtung.

A freezer in Yen's house contained the remains of a Formosan black bear, a Taiwanese serow, a Formosan sambar deer, and wild goats.

Read also: Over 300 Animals Killed Illegally Within Two Months in Utah 

Yen was interrogated before being released on NT$200,000 bail. He is accused of breaking the Wildlife Conservation Act, which is still pending. In addition to seizing a modified rifle, the raid was carried out by local police officers and the head prosecutor of Pingtung County Chang Chun-Hsiang.

Yesterday, a video of Yen and other Wutai citizens went viral online. In the video, two scooter riders are seen riding down a road while holding a dead bear between them. A man sitting in the back seat of the scooter, who is purported to be Yen, is holding a rifle.

People were outraged by the video and demanded that all alleged accomplices face justice.

Prosecutors announced yesterday that they would re-investigate the case and question the alleged collaborators of illegal poaching in light of the additional evidence in the video, Taipei Times reports.

Poaching in Asia

World Wildlife Fund says that in Asia, poaching is at an all-time high due to the persistent illegal wildlife product demands. Asia's forests are being destroyed by this brutal trade, and not just for the large, well-known species like tigers, elephants, and rhinos.