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.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS