Singapore trafficker sentence puzzles ACRES president Louis Ng

“How does fine of less than 10% of the max send a message?”

                  SINGAPORE––The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore on February 10,  2014 announced that Ong Ming Shiang,  33,  had been fined a record $41,000 Singapore dollars (about $32,310 U.S.) for illegal possession of 32 smuggled exotic animals.

                  But the case “really puzzles me,”  said Animal Concerns Research & Education Society president Louis Ng.  “He could have been fined up to $500,000 and sentenced to a jail term of up to two years.  He was caught with evidence suggesting that he kept the animals to sell.  How does the fine of less than 10% of the maximum,  with no jail term,  send a deterrent message?  What exactly does one have to do,  to receive the maximum penalty?”

19 of 32 animals on CITES Appendix I

                  Altogether,  19 of the 32 animals seized from Shiang’s apartment on June 3,  2013 were listed on CITES Appendix I,  meaning that they were of internationally recognized endangered species.

Among the animals were a Sunda slow loris,  three ball pythons, two Indian star tortoises,  and three leopard tortoises.

                  The raid netted more animals than all Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore seizures of exotic species in 2012 combined.

      ACRES on February 13 asked the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority to appeal,  seeking a stiffer sentence.

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