Posted on 02/08/2014 10:56:35 AM PST by nickcarraway
Smugglers stuffed 13 ‘incredibly rare’ iguanas into socks and tried to take them through Heathrow Airport.
The endangered lizards were found by customs officers in a suitcase at Terminal Five when they stopped two Romanian women who arrived from the Bahamas.
They were trying to take the San Salvador rock iguanas, which are native to the Bahamas and under threat of extinction, on to Dusseldorf in Germany.
Each was wrapped in a sock and 12 survived the journey, while one died.
Rare iguanas stuffed in socks seized at Heathrow Airport The iguanas were smuggled inside one suitcase (Picture: PA) Grant Miller, from the Border Force’s endangered species team said: ‘This particular species of iguana is incredibly rare – only a few hundred are believed to be left in existence – so this was a remarkable and very important seizure.
‘Given the circumstances we found them in it seems incredible that all but one survived such a long flight.
‘The surviving animals were dehydrated and are now under the supervision of a specialist vet. We are also working with experts to find the best way to protect and safeguard these endangered creatures longer term.’
Two women, aged 24 and 26, were arrested on suspicion of importation offences.
Aww . . . cute lil’ bugger.
I’m tired of all these Iguana’s on this blank blank plane!!
Stuffed in socks? I am think’n Sandy Berger was on that plane.
That’s racis’. Or animist. Or something. Anyway, wasn’t there a movie about that? If they’re native to the Bahamas, how come they’re San Salvador Rock Iguanas. The whole thing is confusing. ;>}
I am really furious about ALL rare animal poaching and sales, “legal” or not. These wonderful creatures belong where God put them. I’m still fuming about the pythons in the Everglades, being murdered because they don’t belong there and eat the native animals.
Do you know that we are living at the time of the Sixth Extinction? All animal life on earth is on the way out, exactly as if we had been struck by a huge meteor. The inhumanity of humanity is the cause.
Where is St. Francis when you need him?
I want to see their tiny little socks.
When he boarded the airplane, he said he had to drain the lizzard.
I’m, he’s dead too. :(
Stupid autocorrect.
You found me out... I am secretly a racist animalist. LOL!
Ich bin ein Biglizard
The “native animals” are being impacted far more by over development, loss of habitat and toxic chemicals in the water than some pythons.
There are much more destructive ‘invasive species’ in Florida that have all but displaced native birds, mammals and lizards.
But you won’t hear that on the MSM because it doesn’t fit the pETA/HSUS anti-animal narrative.
Exactly. And that is how the Sixth Extinction works.
I drove across the Everglades from Naples to Miami many times in 1988-90, then again in 2009. The Glades had shrunk alarmingly in the intervening years…developers encroaching as fast as they can. Disgustoids.
Where ever the smuggled animals are found on the person, simply remove that body part as part of the punishment.
They’re being drained to provide water for the housing developments.
I’m sure *that* has not affected any native species.
/ face palm
Yeah.
Let’s blame snakes.
Everybody hates snakes.
When I lived in El Paso people would go over to the Old Marketplace in Juarez Mex to get exotic pets unavailable or prohibitively expensive in the US.
So a guy and his wife go over to get a baby skunk and try to smuggle it back across the border checkpoint wrapped up in a bundle and stuffed under the woman’s skirt.
She says “But what about the horrible smell!?”
The husband says “That skunk can stand it for 10 minutes!”
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