If someone were guilty of the wholesale slaughter and near extinction of an entire species, how many years should they get? Well, one rhino horn smuggler just found out:
a pitiful two and a half years.Boonchai Bach, kingpin of the notorious Bach animal smuggling family was arrested in relation to
smuggling some 14 rhino horns in
December of last year, but he has had his hand in the demise of several key endangered species including elephants, pangolins, tigers, lions and other animals that are close to the edge of disappearing.
By some estimates, he has helped smuggle thousands of tons of elephant tusks and rhino horns through Thailand helping them reach their final destinations of Laos, China, and Vietnam.
That translates to hundreds or even thousands of animals taken from this Earth to feed this illicit industry. Unfortunately the Thai government — which charged him under the Thai Customs Act, the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act, and the Animal Epidemics Act — didn't find his crimes as severe as most animal lovers and he has been given a mere two-year sentence.
His punishment most certainly does not fit the crime.
Please call on the Thai government to reconsider their sentence of Boonchai Bach. He must take responsibility for the damage he is doing to the survival of some of the world's most iconic species.
Sign the petition and ask The Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Thailand to give a harsher sentence to this notorious animal smuggler. 