This article is about the illegal trading of endangered species and their parts across the internet. The products are the actual animal or a product associated with the animal. Examples of these two products are live baby lions and wine made from tiger bones. Some of the other endangered species caught up in this mess are: Kaiser's spotted newt, capuchin monkeys, lion cubs, polar bears and leopards. There is a convention, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species or CITES for short, held every year to discuss the problems with the endangered species. 175 nations gather at the meeting to come up with new and different regulations to help stop the illegal actions. One of the species that is disappearing quickly is the Kaiser spotted newt. This animal is being sold as a pet at a rate of 200 per year. There are only 1,000 of them in the mountains of Iran. The total population has decreased 80%. The CITES committee has put a ban on the trade of this newt and enforcement groups are helping to implement this ban.
I believe that these bans are a great idea and they need to be enforced harder. The problem is that the third world countries have little to none enforcement groups to regulate what comes in and out of the country. Also, people are trying to keep transactions off the internet so that neither party can be tract easily. All these endangered species need to be protected and not brought out of their wildlife habitat. These poor animals are being treated like drugs; both are being traded illegally and under the radar. I’m not a crazy animal lover but if we, the United States, have the resources to stop drug trafficking, then we can certainly try to stop this trading.
--Nick Kurtz
