Conservationists, environmentalists and game wardens were taken aback over the festive season, after photos of a woman kissing the decapitated head of an iguana and a man with the reptile’s head partially in his open mouth surfaced on Facebook.
They described the photos, which also portrayed the people posing with iguana carcasses, as utterly disgusting and called on the authorities to do more to ensure that people who broke the current hunting moratorium were brought to justice and given stiffer fines.
The photos surfaced during the hype of the Christmas season, but after it was brought to the attention of the media and the Forestry Division, the name of the Facebook profile was altered and the photos removed. All incoming calls to the cell phone of the woman highlighted in the photos were also subsequently restricted.
Contacted on the matter, Papa Bois Conservation director Marc de Verteuil said though he believed that people who blatantly disregarded the two-year hunting moratorium should be arrested and charged, the people in the photos would most likely get away scot-free.
“Looking at these pictures, the first thing that comes to mind is: ‘Don’t play with your food. What is more concerning is the fact that the bush meat culture is entrenched in our society and that poachers have so little fear for the law that they will post these pictures online for all and sundry to see. Obviously they have no fear of being caught,” de Verteuil told the Sunday Guardian.
“I will bet that the folks in these pictures will not be charged with any crime. In fact, if they are found and charged, I will walk backwards around Independence Square with underwear on my head.” De Verteuil said that this was no isolated incident, as he often came across poachers in the bush and saw people posting photos of protected animals for sale, or proud poachers displaying their catch. He said education was the only answer to curb this type of disrespect to wildlife.
“Children must be taught from a young age that wildlife has an important role to play in the ecosystem. We need to indoctrinate them with that message so that they will become protectors of the animals and forests of T&T, not because somebody threatens to punish them if they don’t, but because they know and understand that it is the right thing to do.”
Call for stiffer penalties
Vice-president of the Incoming Tour Operators Association of T&T Stephen Broadbridge, who is also an honorary game warden, meanwhile called for stiffer penalties to be imposed for hunting illegally. He said fines should start from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000. “There are plans for enforcement, including the increasing of fines from the ridiculous $500 current fine. From what I heard, there are good ideas, but I wish for these plans to be implemented immediately,” he said.
Broadbridge explained that although the wild meat industry was a million-dollar one, killing of the wildlife out of season was not sustainable. “Also to take into consideration is the toxic lead that is released in the wild meat from the bullets and pellets used. When ready to cook not all the pellets are removed and it becomes highly toxic in the cooked meat. So not only it is not sustainable, but it is not healthy and safe for many reasons,” he said.
Honorary game wardens, Broadbridge explained, were empowered under the law to take action against people caught in the illegal hunting and storage of wild meat outside of the hunting season. He said in such cases they received back up from the Police Service and from security personnel of the Water and Sewerage Authority.
“We have all right to search commercial properties without warrants, vehicles and sea vessels. With respect to private properties, we can conduct searches, but with warrants,” he said.
Manpower woes
Game Warden II Steve Seepersad condemned the latest act of illegal hunting highlighted in the Facebook photos, but said he and his colleagues’ attempts to prevent poachers and out-of-season hunting had been severely hampered by a serious manpower shortage at the Forestry Division. He called for the addition of at least 500 game wardens, in addition to the current staff of six Game Wardens I and six Game Wardens II.
“The forests are very large throughout T&T and we need the hundreds of game wardens in order to properly man our forests and protect our wildlife. “We also need unlimited equipment, including firearms and proper gear to go into the forests.” Attempts to contact Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Ganga Singh for comment were unsuccessful, as he did not answer his cellphone nor did he respond to several text messages sent to his phone.
Singh announced the two-year hunting ban on September 19, 2013, which took effect on October 1, 2013. At the time, he said the moratorium was necessary because the country’s wildlife stock was in danger of extinction.