patriotsblade
01-18-2008, 05:14 AM
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/18/vietnam.snakes.ap/index.html
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Authorities in Vietnam seized more than a ton of snakes that were smuggled in on an airplane from Thailand, officials said Friday.
Thousands of the nonvenomous rat snakes were shipped as cargo in 60 boxes on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Bangkok to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport Thursday, said airline spokesman Trinh Ngoc Thanh.
Thanh said the shipment had been declared as live fish.
Many of the snakes, which were surrounded by plastic filled with ice water, have died, said Nguyen Ba Oanh, director of the Wild Animal Rescue Center near Hanoi where the snakes were taken.
The reptiles each weighed between 200 grams (0.44 pounds) to 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds). The official Vietnam News Agency reported that the snakes, which are protected animals, may have been headed to another country.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Authorities in Vietnam seized more than a ton of snakes that were smuggled in on an airplane from Thailand, officials said Friday.
Thousands of the nonvenomous rat snakes were shipped as cargo in 60 boxes on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Bangkok to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport Thursday, said airline spokesman Trinh Ngoc Thanh.
Thanh said the shipment had been declared as live fish.
Many of the snakes, which were surrounded by plastic filled with ice water, have died, said Nguyen Ba Oanh, director of the Wild Animal Rescue Center near Hanoi where the snakes were taken.
The reptiles each weighed between 200 grams (0.44 pounds) to 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds). The official Vietnam News Agency reported that the snakes, which are protected animals, may have been headed to another country.