"Drugged and headed for Dubai": baby leopards, panthers, bear found in luggage

[wfgodot]

Careful, that's real leopard: man smuggles half a jungle in first class
Thai authorities find baby leopards, panthers, monkeys and bear drugged and crammed inside luxury passenger's luggage

A first-class passenger has been arrested at a Thai airport after being found carrying suitcases filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai.

The man, a 36-year-old United Arab Emirates citizen, was waiting to check in for his flight at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport when he was apprehended by undercover anti-trafficking officers who had been monitoring him since his black-market purchase of the rare and endangered animals, according to the Freeland Foundation, an anti-trafficking group based in Thailand.

When authorities opened the suitcases, the animals yawned, said Steven Galster, director of Freeland, who was present during the arrest. There were two leopards, two panthers, an Asiatic black bear and two macaque monkeys – all about the size of puppies.
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more, with panther cub pic, at Guardian link above

VIDEO here: http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/05/13/thai-airport-smuggler-busted-with-baby-leopards-panthers/

 

[badhorsie]

Unbelieveable! When I lived in Kuwait lots of people smuggled tortoises home in matchboxes but this is a different ball game

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I can only imagine the cuteness of when the little leopards, panthers, black bear, and monkeys who are the size of puppies yawned. Aww!

But I'm glad that he was caught and the animals can be released back in the wild or to a zoo if they aren't able to go back in the ~the mighty jungle~.

 

[wfgodot]

Daily Mail has lots of pictures:

Baby bears, panthers and monkeys: The extraordinary menagerie smuggled in first class passenger's suitcases