Meat seized; sellers flee from Stung Treng market

October 13, 2016

Meat seized; sellers flee from Stung Treng market

Thu, 13 October 2016

Local authorities confiscated more than 30 kilograms of rare wildlife meat being illegally sold yesterday during a second raid in eight days at a market in Stung Treng province, though once again, no arrests were made.

The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT), along with national military police, raided the market, seizing 32 kilograms of fresh wild pig and red muntjac – a type of deer – found lying on the ground and for sale in a few stalls, said WRRT team chief Vuthy Ravong.

However, no one claimed to be the owners of it, he said. “We seized it from a few stalls, but we didn’t see any sellers,” he said. “The wildlife meat had been sold at the same place.”

Last Wednesday, officials from the Forestry Administration raided the same location, where they confiscated about 200 kilograms of meat and live animals, though the female sellers managed to escape.

During last week’s inspection, meat from several protected species, such as wild pig, red deer, porcupine and loris were seized, as well as two live tortoises and 10 iguanas.

A similar raid on the illegal trade took place at Banlung market in Ratanakkiri province yesterday, but no wildlife meat was found there, Ravong said.

Wild meats are sold at the markets because some Cambodians don’t have the knowledge to distinguish protected species and others like to eat it, Ravong said.

Eng Hy, spokesman with the National Military Police, and Cheang Yodung, deputy director of provincial Forestry Administration, both said they were unaware of the raids.