Police on Friday said that they had requested prosecutors to investigate a man from Taipei who was found in possession of a dozen endangered tortoises possibly worth hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars.
Officers at the Seventh Special Police Corp’s Criminal Investigation Division said that they discovered the suspected violation while monitoring potential criminal activity on the Internet, after they saw a Facebook post by a man surnamed Lin (林) showing off a radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata), which he said he had kept for 10 years.
The radiated tortoise is a class-one protected species on the Forestry Bureau’s list of protected wildlife, which means that it is facing extinction.
Police also found at Lin’s home 11 Reeves’ turtles (Chinemys reevesii), a class-one protected species, four yellow-margined box turtles, (Cuora flavomarginata) and one yellow pond turtle (Mauremys mutica), which is a class-two protected species.
An adult radiated tortoise reportedly costs about NT$300,000 on the black market and hatchlings of the other three species allegedly cost several thousand New Taiwan dollars each, police said.
The reptiles were confiscated and are now under the custody of the Taipei City Government’s Animal Protection Office, they said.
A construction worker, Lin, 33, used to work at a pet shop where he had apparently developed an obsession with reptiles, officers said, adding that the man appeared desperate after his pets were seized and asked: “Where can I visit them from now on?”
Police said that Lin even created a group on Facebook, which he used to show off the reptiles.
After questioning Lin, police turned his case over to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office over his alleged violations of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保護法).
The police said that some Chinese believe eating tortoises can reinvigorate bodily functions, and that protected tortoise are bought from Taiwanese dealers.
They urged people not to break the law by selling protected animal species.
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