Seller of the Amur leopard skin punished

Photo by ANO "Amur leopards"

First conviction for the storage and sale of skins of the rarest big cat on the planet – the Amur leopard was passed in the Primorsky Krai. The court appointed a criminal penalty of seven months of hard labor with deduction of 5% of the salary to the state.

Until recently, storage and sale of the Red Book animals derivatives were not concerned penal acts and that did not contribute to the disappearance of poaching. However, in July 2013, with personal support of the head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov a new article – 258.1 was added to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It has established criminal liability not only for illegal extraction, but also for the content, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer and sale of rare wildlife.

The Amur leopard is the rarest subspecies of the cat family in the world. At the moment it is on the verge of extinction. According to various estimates, there are 40-50 individuals living in the wild.

 

The sentence passed on a dealer of the Amur leopard skin is the first in Primorye after adobtion of the new article. The man was caught red-handed in the center of Vladivostok, after that the investigation began.

 

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Замдиректора ФГБУ Земля леопарда Елена Салманова изучает изъятую шкуру
Deputy director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Land of the Leopard Elena Salmanova studies withdrawn skin

Specialists of the National Park “Land of the Leopard” examined the seized skins and confirmed that it belonged to one of the rarest cats on the planet. However, this animal did not get into the lenses of camera traps in “Land of the Leopard” and, therefore, lived outside the boundaries of the national park.

The offender did not go away with being mixed up with poaching. Magistrate of the court plot № 11 of the Pervomajski district of Vladivostok found the suspect guilty виновным.

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Фото ГУМВД по Приморскому краю
Operative photo of Primorsky Krai MDMIA

“It is really great that we have imposed the first sentence of the new article about the rare animals, – says Andrey Borodin, the director of ” Land of the leopard. “- Earlier in the Far East, a resident of Khabarovsk Krai was condemned. This is very important as it shows that the law is working, and we are confident that the increased severity of punishment would reduce killing of the Red Book animals. “

Photos by FSBI “Land of the Leopard”