IPPL-UK Battles British Bushmeat Trade

We immediately called the official from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) who had the details and learned that a 3-year-old macaque had come in on a flight from Morocco.

However, because her importer did not have the proper importation permit for her, she was not allowed to remain in Canada. by Steven Brend, former Director, IPPL_UK
November 2002

Everyone working for primate conservation is well aware that the illegal bushmeat trade is a major problem. But just how much of a problem it is was brought home to me one day in October 1999. Just before 5 p.m. my phone rang. It was the curator of London University’s Zoology Museum. She said that some journalists were bringing in a dead monkey for identification. I was at the museum ten minutes later!

What I saw shocked me. It was the desiccated smoked carcass of a guenon. The animal’s hands and legs were crossed, the intestines removed., and the poor monkey was split down the middle so the body could lay flat. It was identical to the bushmeat I had seen in Nigeria. What was it doing in London?

I spoke to the journalists and the story emerged. A freelance journalist, UK based but originally from Cameroon, had looked around the African communities in London to see who was selling bushmeat. In a North London market he met a Nigerian trader who said he could get anything he wanted. The journalist asked for "something special" and returned three weeks later. The monkey was waiting for him.. It weighed less that 2 kilograms (4.5 pounds) but cost more than £300 ($430).

There was nothing more I could do that night, but I kept the monkey at the office and the next morning began the task of trying to secure a prosecution. I tried the Metropolitan Police’s Wildlife department and the division of the Department of Environment that handles the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The trail let to Customs and Excise who, I am delighted to say, responded with alacrity. They took it very seriously indeed. By that afternoon a team was in the office photographing the monkey, interviewing me, contacting the journalists, and preparing a case.

We raided the market three weeks later.

The Nigerian shopkeepers were arrested and the store searched. There was more bushmeat, though none of it came from a monkey or ape. Mainly the meat came from cane rats or duikers. All of it, however, contravened the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety and food importation laws. Not surprisingly. There were even live African giant snails crawling around. They had been smuggled here, packed in tea chests.

The case for the prosecution was strong but bureaucracy then slowed things down. Apparently, the shop was licensed as a record store which meant that selling any food was illegal but, if the shop was closed, the owners would be denied any form of income, which was deemed unacceptable. The case was batted around for over a year. During that time, Customs and Excise discovered more monkey meat coming into Heathrow Airport, London. Other bushmeat was found openly on sale elsewhere in London.

Customs and Excise never let the case drop and in April 2001 we went to Court. The result was an unequivocal victory. Amid widespread media coverage the shopkeepers were found guilty and sentenced. It sent out a very strong signal. Whilst traditional customs and cultures are of course respected, the line is drawn at illegal food importation and the persecution of endangered species.

I think this case brought home a number of things.

*Firstly, Britain does not have the largest expatriate African community in Europe. If there is a bushmeat problem here, it is certain to be in every other European city.

*Secondly, I was impressed by how seriously the problem was taken by the authorities. There seemed to be a clear recognition that, if we are to fight the illegal bushmeat trade at a political level, in Africa, we need to keep our own backyard tidy.

*Thirdly, it once was one of those incidents that prove the worth of IPPL. If we had not been there, ready to champion the cause of any primate, prepared to take a story beyond the level of a media scoop, not willing to let the matter drop - none of this would have happened.

Once again, IPPL proved a wrong and defended the animals who mean so much to us.