What does it mean to traffic animals?
“Wildlife trade refers to the commerce of non-domesticated animals or plants, usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions, either as living or dead animals or their body parts.”
Recently, south of the US border in Mexico, one of the most successful wildlife traffickers has been taking place. They were mostly popular for the crocodiles and Boa constrictors, but the day they were caught, they were carrying six Toucans. To prevent the birds from making noise, they taped them shut.
The U.S. ended up tracking them down and getting their hands on their messages and recordings, leading to one of the biggest trafficking takedowns in the country's history. Jorge Alonso Gutierrez was sentenced for 3 years in prison, and after much research and investigation was done it was found out that 3.5 million animals were trafficked in between 2015-2020. After they were sent over the border they were shipped all over the US without the postal offices ever knowing they were shipping endangered species.
Between 2007-2017 there was an average of one animal found per day. Recently the Mexican environmental protection agency and law enforcement have been tracking and catching more animals and trafficors with over 15,000 retrieved.
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