#illegal-wildlife-trade

#illegal-wildlife-trade

By 10am on the midsummer Day of the Ox, the city of Narita smells of charcoal and sugar. The cobbled road is thronged with visitors lining up to buy grilled eel, a traditional delicacy believed to cool the body and keep spirits up in the humid weather. We'll be so sad if it becomes extinct and we can't eat eel any more, says a customer sitting on the tatami-mat floor in Kawatoyo, a popular restaurant specialising in grilled eel, which has been operating for more than 115 years.

Hoger points to a troubling legal loophole: "There's a thriving black market for trading protected species. Exotic animals are openly advertised in WhatsApp groups and at pet fairs even those strictly protected in their countries of origin. Because Germany doesn't recognize their protected status, these animals can be sold legally here, despite having been smuggled out illegally in the first place."

"We never imagined Mexico would emerge as number one, says Kurt Duchez, an anti-wildlife trafficking officer for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Mesoamerica."