SIBU: The Sessions Court here has fined a man RM50,000 for illegally possessing 23 protected animals such as turtles, crocodiles and eagles.
Tang Jung Lung, 46, pleaded guilty to three charges before judge Marutin Pagan on Wednesday (Nov 29).
He was charged under Section 37(2)(a),(b) and (c) of the Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998, read together with Section 37(1)(2)(a) of the same ordinance and punishable under Section 29(1)(c).
The offences were committed on Oct 1, 2019 at a farm on Jalan Oya near Stapang Bazaar.
Three other accused who were arrested at the same time were discharged and acquitted after the first accused struck a plea bargain.
Three Sarawak Forestry Corporation enforcement officers who raided the farm found the accused in possession of 23 protected animal species without permission from the Controller of Wild Life.
The animals included one Oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris), one Bornean giant turtle (Orlitia borneensis), six porcupines (family Hystricidae), three tree shrews (family Tupaiidae), two estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), two Bali mynas (Leucopsar rothschildi), one hill myna (Gracula religiosa), one parakeet (Psittacula longicauda), one sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), one bearcat (Arctictis binturong), one pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina), one long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), one Wallace's hawk eagle (Nisaetus nanus), and one rock dove (Columbia livia).
