Tanzanian prison officers arrested for giraffe poaching
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E-mail Xinhua, July 25, 2013
Seven people including three prison officers from the Kiteto District in northern Tanzania have been arrested after found transporting a consignment of wild meat worth 55 million Tanzanian shillings (34,375 U. S. dollars).
The anti-poaching unit chief, Paschal Mrina, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the arrest was made possible by his unit's rangers in collaboration with forest rangers of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
The suspects were arrested on July 23, when the seven were in a prison vehicle loaded with wild meat, Mrina said, adding that the slain wild animals included giraffes, zebras, gazelles and ostriches.
He described the poaching as a threat to the survival of the country's wildlife sector, because the giraffe is the Tanzania's national symbol and, as such, it is protected by law.
The anti-poaching unit commander said they also found two firearms on the suspects, one of which belongs to Tanzanian prisons.
"We were in the operation and we saw the vehicle coming and we stopped it, and after inspecting we found the consignment of wild meat," he said, adding that the suspects had a permit which allowed Hassani Omari to hunt for one buffalo, "but the suspects used it to kill other wild animals something which is against the law."
Mrina attributed the use of government vehicles as a challenge towards scaling-down poaching incidents in the East African nation.
Giraffe in Tanzania is increasingly becoming an easy target for bush meat hunters, and wildlife protectors are warning that if the trend is not checked now, the towering African animal will soon be extinct.
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