14 DAY TRIAL // Officers of the Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) in Western Australia managed to rescue a wallaby joey that was posted for sale on Facebook after posing as potential buyers, The Guardian informs.
During a plain-clothes police operation, an undercover wildlife officer met up with the 26-year-old seller in a car park in Broome on Thursday last week and managed to seize the animal.
The wallaby joey was imported from the Northern Territory and a man tried to illegally sell it on the social networking site, with an asking price of $3,500 (€2,520). The Australian wallaby is listed as an endangered species, so it's illegal to sell or possess a native animal, unless you have a wildlife license. But despite this, the seller received an offer of up to $10,000 (€7,200) from a visiting overseas buyer.
Wildlife officer Peter Carstairs revealed that the man would be charged with offenses including possession, importation and selling of protected wildlife under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950. Additionally, he faces penalties of up to $4,000 (€2,880) for some of the charges.
Authorities say it is not known how the man got the wallaby joey or how long he had it for.
“There is a black market trade in Australian wildlife and it is a practice that must be stopped. [..] We understand there was an offer of up to $10,000 [€7,200] from a buyer visiting from overseas,” Mr. Carstairs said.
He also mentioned that the DPaW found out about the man's actions, after some concerned local residents made complaints about the Facebook advert.
“The community outrage generated by this incident shows that people really care about protecting our native wildlife,” he added.
The little joey has been rescued uninjured and is currently being cared for by a wildlife rehabilitator. When the rehabilitation treatment finishes, the animal will be returned to the Northern Territory. “We will contact our counterpart agency in the Northern Territory to arrange the wallaby's return,” a spokeswoman for the DPaW said.
She added that they often encounter cases in which people try to sell native Australian animals on social networking sites and consumer sites such as Gumtree. In 2013, for instance, a Japanese man was caught trying to smuggle lizards from the state.
Wallabies are animals belonging to the family Macropodidae and are smaller than kangaroos. They are widely distributed across Australia, and their diet consists of a wide range of grasses, vegetables, leaves.