Criminal leopard tortoise trade discovery at airport

Translated from regional broadcaster RTV Noord-Holland in the Netherlands today:

SCHIPHOL airport – An inspector from the Dutch Food Safety Authority (NVWA) last weekend at Schiphol discovered a box containing 60 leopard tortoises. The animals were put in tiny boxes and could not move.

The tortoises were 47 centimeters long, while their compartments only had a length of 45 centimeters. Therefore they could not move their heads and feet, NVWA reports.

The animals were en route from Uganda to Hong Kong. The owner could not show valid CITES documents, which regulate the global trade in protected species. The turtles were therefore expropriated and taken to a shelter. The owner received an official report for animal cruelty.

Related articles

• Wild Bison Return to Europe After a Century
• First black-tailed godwit egg of spring found
• Solar pumps help Dutch grassland birds
• Don’t kill wigeons, Dutch judge says
• Young Sandwich terns with rings seen again
• Rare moth discovery in the Netherlands
• Young loggerhead turtle survives beaching in the Netherlands
• Dutch snowy owls news
• Dutch snowy owls from Newfoundland by ship?
• Rare mushrooms in Dutch winter