Five men were recently arrested in Governor Generoso Town in Davao Oriental for allegedly engaging in the illegal animal trade.
According to the Philippine Coast Guard, the men --three Filipinos and two Indonesians-- were found with 27 wild birds and marsupials on their boat after barangay official said they appeared to act suspiciously.
The presence of the Indonesians is a cause for concern. Were they intending to take the animals as far as Indonesia or somewhere else?
We are sure there are more such crimes being made, incidents of animal smuggling that our authorities were not able to uncover.
It can be said that animals are the voiceless victims of smuggling. Apart from the fact that they literally cannot speak, the illegal trade in wildlife isn’t given as much attention as human smuggling or the smuggling of contraband in and around our shores.
But we do have reason to make sure this shouldn’t go on. Removing too many animals from an ecosystem, as wildlife smugglers are wont to do, can have disastrous results.
The entire natural world consists hundreds of different and unique ecosystems that nature itself designed to be balanced. Removing a part of the ecosystem, whether it’s a plant, animal, or part of the place itself, can lead to an imbalance.
But why should we care, right? Yes, we usually don’t give a damn until we realize that there are no longer enough numbers of this animal left to contain the proliferation of that animal, or this animal to help propagate a certain plant species, or of that animal to keep a human population fed, and so on.
Smugglers of animals must be stopped before they devastate an ecosystem.
There is solid proof that nature will heal itself if allowed to do so. Just recently the critically-endangered Philippine Cockatoo was sighted again by government workers surveying a watershed in Bohol recently. The bird was last seen in 2017 yet.
In some instances at least, there is yet no point of no return.