Man Faces up to 5 Years in Prison for Illegally Catching and Importing a Tiger
STORY PROVIDED BY THE SLOVAK POLICE CORPS:
The investigator of the Department for Detection of Hazardous Substances and Environmental Crime of the Criminal Police Bureau of the Presidium of the Slovak Police Force accused Jan K. from the village of Žiharec in the Šaľa district of southern Slovakia of violating plant and animal protection under Section 305 of the Criminal Code because he caught a jungle tiger (Panthera tigris) for commercial purposes in South Africa contrary to Council Regulation (EC) no. 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein. Subsequently in violation of Council Regulation no. 338/97 he imported it into the territory of the Slovak Republic without the relevant import permit issued by the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic and kept it in a family house without being able to prove the method of its acquisition. At the same time, he used the tiger in violation of the law to promote business activities in connection with the mediation of hunting in the Republic of South Africa. The total social value of the jungle tiger specimen was calculated by the Scientific Body of the Slovak Republic of the State Nature Protection of the Slovak Republic at EUR 28,000.
According to Section 305 /Breach of Plant and Animal Species Protection Regulations/ any person who, in breach of generally binding legal regulations on nature and landscape protection, or generally binding legal regulations on specimen protection through the regulation of trade in them on a larger scale, a) acquires for himself or procures for another a protected animal or a protected plant, or to a large extent procures a specimen for another person, b) cultivates, breeds, processes, imports or exports protected plants or protected animals, or specimens, or traffics in them, or otherwise misappropriates them, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of between six months and three years. The offender shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of one to five years if he commits the offence referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 or 3 on a considerable scale.
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