Endangered Animals for Sale
The name of the shopping center is called Cartimar in Manila, and it is known to sell endangered animals openly. It does not matter what kind of endangered species, they probably have heard of it or sold it at one point or another.
Animals being sold there are some of the most expensive ones in the world, but you can buy it for a couple of hundred dollars, at most. The road side of the center sells home pets like dogs, rabbits, hamsters, cats, and birds. It’s your typical row pet stores. It’s only when you walk further in to the darker alleys and dimly lit stores that you find amazing animals.
The Mameng, as it is called locally, is a Humphead Wrasse or Maori. It is one of the world’s most expensive live fish. It’s used in high end seafood restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. It is an endangered species and sells for about a mere US $140 negotiable. When cooked, it is sold for over US $1,400 in other Asian cities. The lips alone of the Mameng costs US$470 as a dish.
The fish is locally grown and is classified as endangered animals. Yet baby Mamengs are caught and bred for the sole purpose of selling. Chinese fishermen also come to Philippines seas just to catch the Mameng fish. In 2006, more than 300 Mameng baby fish were caught onboard a Chinese fishing vessel en route back to China for selling.
In another part of the Philippines, dolphins, whales, manta rays, sharks, and giant clams are being caught and butchered for souvenirs and food. These are all endangered animals but fished as one official claim, “like the wild, wild west.” There is very little monitoring and policing being done for lack of funds or will power.
The WWF has an active presence, but they have no legal personality to enforce the law. Just last 2010 an 18 foot whale shark was found floating dead without its fins and dorsal! These are known Chinese delicacies and can fetch up to US$950 per kilo. In 1997 there was a report of 200 sharks killed to be sold as dried delicacies in Hong Kong in spite of a protection order with jail term and fine.
Visiting Cartimar will probably show vendors openly peddling giant clams. Raids have come and go but it seems the giant clams are not on the list. The Philippines is home to 7 of the world’s 8 species of endangered giant clams. At the rate it’s going, there’s not going to be any endangered animals left to breed.
Reference: Illustrated Encyclopedia of endangered animals.
