Written: May 30, 2019

Hanoi, May 30, 2019, three bears were illegally kept at an object in Nghe An province were transferred to the rescue center after nearly 2 months after the ENV announcement was announced. to the local authorities.

After receiving information from people about a household that is most likely to illegally bear bears in Nghe An, ENV has verified the information, located the location as well as confirmed the number of bears being kept in captivity. here. Immediately after that, ENV provided information to the authorities of Nghe An province and requested the authorities to quickly confiscate bears as well as handle violators in accordance with the law. . However, only today, nearly 2 months after the breach was discovered, 3 individuals were illegally trapped to be "voluntarily transferred." Currently, these 3 bears are on their way to the Ninh Binh Bear Conservation Facility of Four Paws.

This is a complicated case because the subject is extremely mobile and disregards the law. In the process of approaching the violating facility, the inspection team and ENV staff encountered fierce opposition from the owner and the surrounding people with many violent acts such as throwing soil, straw and threatening to burn the car. ENV staff can safely exit the area only with the assistance of local rangers. Despite the difficulties, ENV is determined to pursue the case to ensure the law is enforced.

Ms. Bui Thi Ha, Deputy Director of ENV said: "These violations are very serious and a big challenge for the authorities of Nghe An province." Ms. Ha shared: “The authorities need to strictly enforce the law in all cases to ensure the rigor and the meaning of deterrence, crime prevention as well as promoting the end of bear farming. illegal in Vietnam. "

Nghe An, a province bordering Laos, used to be an area where many bear captive facilities are located. The province is still a hot spot for wildlife trade, especially tusks, rhino horns, tigers and pangolins. ENV database since 2010 also recorded about 119 violations nationwide involving subjects from Nghe An, a very large percentage compared to other localities. Earlier, in 2015, the authorities did not successfully handle a case of capturing 5 illegal tigers from information provided by ENV. Therefore, ENV hopes that the authorities of Nghe An province will participate more actively, promote law enforcement to reduce the number of violations in general and minimize the situation. wildlife trade in the area in particular.

Ms. Bui Thi Ha added: “Despite acknowledging the efforts of authorities in Nghe An province, ENV hopes to see more drastic actions of local authorities soon in dealing with violation of wildlife trade. If so, Nghe An can reduce wildlife trade and is no longer a hot spot for illegal wildlife trade. ”

Vietnam has about 700 bears left captive throughout the country. Most owners think that the purpose of keeping bears is to "preserve" or to love bears. However, there is much evidence that bear bile extraction or illegal trade still occurs in some localities. Therefore, strengthening the inspection, supervision and handling of violations in a timely and strict manner is extremely important to end the bear bile farming in Vietnam soon. Only when they perceive the "unfavorable gain" from capturing bears for bile can owners be willing to give up on this activity.

Important developments of the case:

- March 21, 2019: The authorities conducted periodic inspection of bear farms of the target families in Xóm 5, Quỳnh Yên commune, Quỳnh district, Lưu, Nghệ An province and recorded 6 fish can be registered with local authorities.

- April 8, 2019: From the initial verification of another subject's bear confinement facility in Xóm 2, Quỳnh Ngọc commune, Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province, ENV transferred information about the incident. to Nghe An Provincial Forest Protection Department and request authorities to immediately inspect and handle violators.

- April 9, 2019: Interdisciplinary inspection team including representatives of Provincial Forest Protection Department, District Forest Protection Department, District Police and Quynh Ngoc Commune representative together with ENV checked the left bear captivity. permission of the object in hamlet 2, Quynh Ngoc commune but the subject is not cooperating. Unable to directly approach, the Team conducted a survey of the surrounding area and found 9 bears in captivity at the above address.

- In the morning of April 10, 2019: The interdisciplinary inspection team checked the number of bears that were being kept at both registered addresses (Xóm 5, Quỳnh Yên commune) and unregistered subjects (Xóm 2 , Quỳnh Ngọc commune). Through inspection, the authorities recorded at the registered location (Xóm 5, Quỳnh Yên commune) no longer had captive bears; At the unregistered location (Hamlet 2, Quynh Ngoc commune), authorities detected 9 bears in captivity, of which 2 were bear the management chip. The rest, although many times the authorities have scanned the chip but could not identify the chip.

-April 24, 2019: Nghe An Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting with relevant departments and agencies, directed initially to mobilize the subjects to transfer by themselves and will force to handle in case of non-cooperation. .

- On 06/05/2019, after re-reading the chips of 9 bears discovered at unregistered address (Xóm 2, Quỳnh Ngọc commune) at the request of the subject, the inspection team found 1 more fish. The bear body is embedded with a chip. Thus, a total of 9 bears discovered at the unregistered location of the subject, 3 bears had a chip (suspected of moving from a registered facility in Xóm 5, Quynh Yen commune); 3 individuals were unable to read the chip (registered by the subject, transferred from the establishment in Xóm 5, Quynh Yen commune) and 3 individuals were unable to register and attached the chip (the object declared "rescue" from the person People).

- May 30, 2019: 3 unregistered bears were "voluntarily transferred" to Ninh Binh Bear Rescue Center. ”