Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 20 augusT 2019

Songbirds silenced as Colombia fights wildlife trafficking

By JOSHUA GOODMAN tomed to human beings. In
Associated Press the case of the canaries, 11
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) of the 32 tested positive for
— The metal doors of a a parasite that needs to be
shoebox-sized cage open treated before they can re-
up and a bird tagged #811 sume flight.
launches into a giant avi- Not all bird lovers support
ary. The palm-sized finch the crackdown.
performs a midair pirouette, Carlos Castellano, a Co-
lands on a willow branch lombian judge for the World
and curiously twitches its Ornithological Confedera-
saffron-colored head side- tion, believes authorities
ways, as if surprised by its are criminalizing a rich cul-
good fortune. tural tradition. Birds have
“That’s what it feels like to been bred in captivity for
be free,” said Juan Camilo their colors, shape or song
Panqueba, a veterinar- since at least the 14th cen-
ian at a quarantine cen- tury, he said, and the tradi-
ter in Colombia’s high An- tion is especially rooted in
dean capital, far from the Latin America, where the
canary’s natural habitat practice arrived with the
along the humid, Caribbe- Spanish conquistadores.
an coast. “I wish it were so easy to ob-
The moment of liberation In this Aug. 5, 2019 photo, canaries caught from the wild by animal traffickers sing in their cages ligate a bird to sing,” joked
contrasts with the dread- in a quarantined area of a wildlife center before being freed in Bogota, Colombia. Castellano, whose singing
ful conditions in which the Associated Press sidekick “Caruso” in 1989
finch was found. Three of a 500-strong police unit ture reserve and locked participants and the pay- won Colombia’s only top
weeks ago, authorities in that combats environmen- up a zoo in Barranquilla. A ing public plenty of whiskey prize ever at the World Or-
the capital seized 32 finch- tal crimes. lawyer claiming to act on and “something wonder- nithology Championship,
es in a surprise raid on a Prosecutors are also more the bear’s behalf success- ful” as they cheered on held in Italy. “If a bird isn’t
cockfighting ring where a aggressively going after fully sued to have Chucho the birds hanging in cages happy in its cage, which is
high-stakes, booze-filled the criminal networks that released. If the high court above an artificial turf ring. its home by birth or destiny,
songbird contest billed as thrive on the illegal trade, upholds that ruling it would The owner of the bird with it won’t ever sing, no mat-
“the clash of titans” on whose profits trail only drug be the first time a wild ani- the biggest pipes, as mea- ter what you do.”
social media was taking and arms smuggling, ac- mal in Colombia has ever sured by judges counting While Castellano acknowl-
place. cording to police. Globally, been granted habeas cor- chirps on a giant abacus edges that taking the birds
While sparring by way of the wildlife trade is worth pus rights similar to those with a star at one end, was from the wild is illegal, he
song has been a pastime more than $10 billion, ac- enjoyed by human beings. to take home a $100 prize. accuses authorities of over-
throughout the Caribbe- cording to the United Na- The seizure of the 32 birds Officials from the environ- looking the fact that their
an for centuries, trapping tions’ Office on Drugs and was the result of an un- mental secretariat say the abundant population,
wildlife without a license Crime. dercover operation led birds were subjected to widely distributed through-
— even species like these The focus on law enforce- by members of Bogota’s prolonged abuse by their out Latin America and a
saffron finches, or Sica- ment coincides with a de- environmental secretariat. captors, mostly migrants colonizing presence even
lis flaveola, which are not bate about the rights of In May, with police they to the capital from the Ca- in urban areas, isn’t at risk.
threatened — is a crime wild animals raging in Co- seized 16 birds, including ribbean coast and Ven- Even breeders like himself
in Colombia, though one lombia and around the an endangered cardinal, ezuela, who kept them in need to supplement their
that authorities ignored in world. locked in small cages in the tiny cages and force domestic population from
a country overrun by drug This month, judges on Co- three working-class apart- them to listen to loud mu- time to time with wild speci-
cartels, leftist guerrillas and lombia’s constitutional ments. Leads from that sic around the clock in an mens, he says.
other armed groups court heard arguments in raid allowed authorities to effort to spur them to sing. “This is going to convert
Until now. a long-running case over clandestinely penetrate a In the wild, the birds croon a cultural tradition into a
Taking advantage of a the fate of an endangered network that organized last to defend their territory or clandestine activity,” Cas-
decline in violence, and Andean spectacled bear month’s event. court a mate. tellano said.
spurred by a growing named Chucho, who years A video posted on a closed “For them, it was like tor- Authorities want to deliver
awareness of Colombia’s ago was taken from a na- Facebook group promised ture,” said Panqueba, the a blow to the highly or-
importance as the coun- veterinarian, who is techni- ganized, dangerous syn-
try with the second highest cal supervisor at the city- dicates behind the illegal
biodiversity in the world, run wildlife center where trade. While wildlife traffick-
authorities are going after the birds are cared for ing is punishable with jail
animal trafficking like never alongside more than 1,000 sentences of four to nine
before. Last year, police animals, among them rain- years, few of the more than
seized more than 34,600 bow-colored macaws, en- 3,500 people caught in the
animals illegally poached dangered sea turtles and act so far this year for en-
from the wild — a 44% in- tiny titi monkeys — all of vironmental and wildlife
crease over 2017. Many them rescued from traffick- crimes are currently be-
were detected by a pack ers. hind bars. Many are repeat
of 16 feather- and skin-sniff- While the aim is always to offenders. In the case of
ing dogs stationed at air- return the animals to their the canaries, prosecutors
ports and bus stations. natural habitat, many are for the first time are trying
“Just because it’s a tradi- In this Aug. 5 , 2019 photo, a veterinarian walks past animals that unfit to survive in the wild, to stiffen the punishment
tion doesn’t make it right,” were rescued from animal traffickers, in the rehabilitation area having developed dis- by adding conspiracy
said Maj. Paula Ortiz, head of a wildlife center in Bogota, Colombia. Associated Press eases or grown too accus- charges.q