Rare Madagascar lemurs rescued in Dahanu

Illegal animal trade, carried out through websites, also offered exotic dog breeds for air delivery

MUMBAI: In an operation lasting over eight hours, customs, forest and wildlife officials rescued two mouse lemurs, 33 dogs and seven puppies from two persons allegedly involved in illegal pet trade. Their premises in Dahanu, near Mumbai, were raided on Thursday night.

Talking to DNA from New Delhi, People for Animals activist Maneka Gandhi, who played a key role in the raid, said that animal lovers from Mumbai had informed her about the illegal trade in endangered species being conducted through the internet. Traders were offering animals of various breeds to any one, anywhere in the country — at a big price.

“They even offered chihuahua pups straight from Thailand and delivered the same within 24 hours. We created four dummy buyers in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and contacted the duo on their web domain. When the deals were finalised, we informed activists from People for Ethical Treatment to Animals (Peta) in Mumbai,” Gandhi added.

“As cases of smuggling in endangered species are covered under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) we contacted the customs officials at Dahanu. The lemurs were handed over to the forest authorities at Thane,” said Peta activist Jaisimha.

Customs officials have detained the duo, named Feroze and Mellissa, for further questioning. “Preliminary investigations revealed the duo had no import licence or sales tax number to deal in animals,” said an assistant commissioner of customs.

“The rare monkeys are found only in the jungles of Madagascar and there are just a few hundred of them left. The dogs found at the premises included rottweilers, basset hounds, weimaraners, cocker spaniels and Yorkshire terriers,” customs sources said.

One of the documents, called ‘Kijiji’, had been removed from the website. Two documents called India grid 1 and India grid 2 still show the lemurs for sale. The website says they can air cargo dogs anywhere in the world within seven days. The duo’s own website is dogsdomainindia.com.