The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted a Taichung couple on charges of breaching the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) by importing 101 panther chameleons from Madagascar.
The species is listed on Appendix 2 of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the office said.
The couple, surnamed Wei (魏) and Huang (黃), in November last year applied to the Council of Agriculture and obtained permission to import panther chameleons bred in captivity, it said.
Photo copied by Wang Kuan-jen, Taipei Times
However, the couple imported wild panther chameleons, whose trade is controlled by Appendix 2 of CITES, the office said, adding that the couple made a stopover in Hong Kong to obtain allegedly forged documents from a local company attesting that the chameleons were “bred.”
The couple cleared Taiwanese customs with the papers, but the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office received an anonymous tip on the day the animals arrived, upon which it conducted a search at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and found 70 chameleons in a warehouse, the office said.
The remaining 31 chameleons had been delivered to a buyer, surnamed Kuo (郭), in Hsinchu City, the Taichung office said, adding that Kuo was being prosecuted by the New Taipei City office.
Pet store owners said that common chameleons sell for between NT$2,000 and NT$5,000, and that chameleons bred in captivity are usually not as sensitive or brightly colored as wild chameleons.
They said chameleons are extremely fragile and should be observed from a distance instead of kept as pets, adding that contact might scare them and cause them to die.
The imported panther chameleons could fetch tens of thousands of New Taiwan dollars, the Taichung office said.
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