The Battambang provincial Department of Environment on Sunday detained three out of eight people for electrocuting 123 painted stork babies at the Prek Toal conservation area in Ek Phnom district.
Battambang provincial environment department director Kort Boran said on Sunday that the three electrocuted the painted stork babies on Wednesday within the conservation area in Koh Chivaing commune. The other suspects escaped, leaving the babies behind.
Boran said the painted stork babies had just grown their wings before being electrocuted. He said the suspects, who lived in the district, intended to sell them as bushmeat in Battambang and neighbouring Siem Reap province.
“I don’t remember the three offenders’ names, but they are aged 15 to 27. We are preparing a case file to send to the provincial court on Monday. We’ve already identified the other five offenders and are searching for them.
“I won’t let any of them get away with it and will send them all to court without any exception. We won’t just educate them because we have done so for years and such people still repeated their offences,” he said.
A report released by the ministry said the suspects were arrested in the early hours of Thursday while 12 rangers and community volunteers were patrolling the conservation area.
In a separate case on Thursday, a shop owner in Pursat province’s Krakor district was also briefly held and fined four million riel for stocking 46.3kg of bushmeat.
District Military Police commander Nov Socheat told The Post on Sunday that his officers in collaboration with Wildlife Alliance officials raided an illegal bush meat shop in Krakor’s Anlong Tnort commune.
The 35-year-old shop owner, Yang Sodaly, was not arrested but briefly held for education and fined 4.5 million riel ($1,115).
According to a report posted on the Military Police’s Facebook page on Saturday, officers seized 24.5kg of Porcupine meat, deer meat (18kg), boar meat (2kg) and Sumantran serows’ dried skin (1.8kg). The bushmeat was set on fire.
In its Facebook post on Saturday, Wildlife Alliance said the raid was part of the fight against poaching and wildlife trafficking in the Kingdom.
The group appealed to the public to stop consuming bushmeat, which encouraged the wildlife trade that put endangered animals at risk.
