BURI RAM, Jan 15 — A thousand endangered birds have been rescued in a raid at a petrol station in Thailand’s northeastern province of Buri Ram.
Police from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, in a joint operation with Nang Rong district police and livestock officials, raided a filling station on Nang Rong-Non Ki Road on Buri Ram’s Nang Rong district after receiving a court’s search warrant.
In the search, the authorities found nearly 1,000 birds, mainly endangered special imported from overseas such as Macaws, Sun Conures (wild parrots), Golden Pheasants and Indian Peacocks, all protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)’s list of endangered species.
The owner of the petrol station asserted that all birds were imported legally and that the trading was run according to the law but he could not produce legal documents for the authorities, who seized the birds to hold for inspection.
If the owner does not produce proof of legal ownership, they said, he can be prosecuted.
