Ocean Sentry
The post below describes the government reaction to the initial live animal smuggling investigation.
Government Reaction
Trying to get the government to take the live animal smuggling problem seriously isn”t easy. The government knows who is smuggling and who is involved in organized crime, but officials are unwilling to hold the actual criminals responsible, and many officials themselves are involved in the illegal breeding business. Thus, it is not in their interest to draw attention to the human culprits.
As the amount of environmental destruction increased and people outside the Galapagos started to take notice, the government had to start addressing the problem. The government thus went on TV to make a statement against all animal smuggling. It was a warning to all who were involved in the business. However, they didn’t make a statement saying they would punish smugglers. They didn’t make a statement saying they would punish illegal buyers. They didn’t make a statement saying they would punish illegal breeders, since so many officials were involved in the business. Unwilling to implicate any humans, the only safe target to exact justice on were the animals. The government made a statement by murdering a purebred dog on public television, warning everyone in the Galapagos that they would kill any purebred dogs they could find, because the dogs were the problem. As we said, this statement was unfortunately the most typical reaction by the government….
Read Full Article supervegan.com, by Todd Emko
