Thailand is a key pipeline in a lucrative global trade that animal activists warn risks spreading zoonotic diseases and erasing biodiversity
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old passenger bound for Taipei tried to evade security at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport with dozens of fist-sized tortoises strapped to her body.
A day earlier, hundreds of live turtles and bright blue-green iguanas, along with a freshwater crocodile, were all seized on arrival in Bangkok from the Indian city of Bengaluru.
There were raccoons in a box meant for check-in by an Indian woman on April 18. A few days before that, it was chameleons and a pair of endangered gibbons – also destined for India.
One of the raccoons had already died in the nearly airless container by the time airport authorities detected the box.
Source: News - South China Morning Post
