(Trinidad Guardian) Cramped together in wicker baskets and cages— baby monkeys, parrots, and a macaw were rescued by police during an exercise in south Trinidad yesterday.
Speaking to Guardian Media outside the Fyzabad Police Station, Seepersad said the smuggling of protected animals through the porous borders of the South Western peninsula has doubled within recent times, despite an increase in fines.
He said the Forestry Division, as well as the Fyzabad police, searched a house at Red Brick Trace, and seized 14 baby monkeys, 17 yellow-headed parrots and one macaw.
The baby monkeys were kept in wicker baskets and one cage while the yellow-headed parrots were also caged.
“The way these animals are captured is very inhumane and the numbers that are taken means that there could be a depletion in the population coming out of South America and the Amazon,” Seepersad said.
