Baby marmoset monkey for $4,800? Inside this ‘public’ Telegram group selling exotic pets in Singapore, Singapore News

Extravagant holding a hedgehog, a rhinoceros ratsnake or even a monkey as a pet? 

Very well, if possessing a Pomeranian or a compact hamster is too mainstream for you, it would seem that buying an unique animal in Singapore may not be so complicated right after all. 

A Telegram consumer, whose cope with is SingaporeSafari, is seemingly functioning a ‘June Holiday getaway Special’ sale in this 3,900-member chat group.

Calling for “significant keepers only”, SingaporeSafari wrote on Wednesday (June 22): “Hedgehog $190 each and every, whilst stocks previous. Star tortoise equally for $1,100… Little one male marmoset $4,800.”

First developed in June 2020, Exotic Pets Singapore is explained as a platform strictly for “discussion and know-how only”.

But just after signing up for this ‘public’ group on Thursday (June 23), which does not demand an invitation from current users, AsiaOne has uncovered a flourishing group where by customers present off videos of their prized unique pets.

Other buyers, like SingaporeSafari, are openly advertising exotic animals to potential prospective buyers, the place most of them are illegal to be held as animals in Singapore.

For example, star tortoises, sugar gliders, monkeys, scorpions and snakes are all offered for the ideal cost.

When AsiaOne contacted SingaporeSafari on Friday (June 24), the Telegram person shared that the “common” sugar gliders from Malaysia are however accessible to preorder at $600 a pair.

Banned in Singapore because of to problems about the unlawful wildlife trade, sugar gliders are native to Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Warning the reporter, who posed as a prospective purchaser, not to “play out the purchase”, SingaporeSafari said: “When stock comes will enable you know… Approximated a few to four weeks or less.”

It is mysterious how this seller managed to get these animals smuggled into Singapore.

In a “pinned information” on the Telegram group, customers of Unique Pets Singapore are made knowledgeable of the hazards involved.

“Keep in mind that a lot of persons – even the authorities – are viewing and we may possibly not know. So this [group] is purely for dialogue,” user Sg JS wrote in December 2020.

But virtually two a long time on, it has not stopped the likes of SingaporeSafari from providing exotic animals on the web.

In Singapore, the Wildlife Act prohibits the sale and the ownership of these wild animals as animals, in accordance to the Animal and Veterinary Provider (AVS).

This is because of to quite a few causes, primarily to stop the unfold of disorders, disrupt the ecosystem and influence Singapore’s biodiversity if they are unveiled into the wild.

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To residence the animals that are confiscated from the unlawful wildlife trade in Singapore, Acres recognized a rescue centre in 2009. 

But purchasing endangered wildlife, such as the star tortoises and sugar gliders, would encourage poachers and smugglers which will gas the illegal world-wide wildlife trade, AVS included.

In June 2020, a marmoset had to be euthanised on “humane and welfare grounds” immediately after officers from the Animal Fears Study and Training Culture (Acres) uncovered it deserted in Geylang.

And two adult men, including a volunteer from Acres, ended up fined last July for trying to keep unlawful unique animals which include a sugar glider and a eco-friendly iguana in their households, Nowadays documented.

The penalties of illegally importing endangered wildlife is strict. Offenders caught can be fined up to $500,000 or an imprisonment for a phrase up to two decades – or the two.

AsiaOne has contacted AVS for comment.

editor@asiaone.com