Spain’s Guardia Civil police have arrested two people in connection with the sale of exotic felines on the internet.
The authorities seized 19 animals, including a caracal and two servals, in an operation in Manacor, on the island of Mallorca, according to a police statement.
More than 40 irregular animal passports from countries such as Russia, Belarus and China were also found.
The operation began in March of last year when SEPRONA (Spain’s National Agency for the Protection of Animals) learned that a couple, living in the town of Ariany (Palma de Mallorca), ‘owned and bred servals, caracals and their hybrids with domestic cats on a plot of land, subsequently listing them for sale on social media’, according to the police report.
The suspects are alleged to have offered for sale white tigers, clouded leopards – for which they were asking 60,000 euros – Eurasian lynxes, hyenas, black leopards and pumas.
Most of the animals offered for sale came from countries such as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to be smuggled into the European Union. Furthermore, the animals were smuggled into the European Union through the Polish-Belarus border and, from there, distributed with false documentation.
Attempts to breed and own these types of felines as pets are widespread in Russia and Ukraine, and the trend has begun to be imitated in other countries, the authorities said.
Those arrested and investigated are charged with alleged crimes against wildlife, smuggling, document falsification, and organised crime.
The animals will be transferred to a rescue and rehabilitation centre for exotic mammals in Alicante.
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