Tanzania Illegal game meat traders face legal action

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Illegal game meat traders face legal action
DAILY NEWS Reporter
Daily News; May 05, 2008

The government has warned unscrupulous traders who engage in illegal game meat business reportedly growing countrywide that their days are numbered. A statement issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism’s Permanent Secretary Ms Blandina Nyoni stated that it was illegal under the Wildlife Conservation Act for anyone to deal or trade in fresh, cooked or dried bush-meat.

“Any person who will provide information or facilitate arrest and conviction of a person dealing in illegal harvesting, utilisation and trade of bush meat will be rewarded 10 per cent of the value of the animal fees in trophy or tourist hunting rate,” the statement quoted the PS as saying.

Ms. Nyoni also said that currently illegal trade in game meat was being conducted in various parts of the country in premises including local and tourists’ hotels, lodges and camps, restaurants, cafes, bars, local brew joints, guest houses and homes. In the list she also named butcheries, retail and wholesale food shops, make-shift food stalls, open markets as well as offices and saloons. The government has also alerted the public to be cautious with several strategies used to market the illegal business including advertisements on menus, packaging in small plastic bags and processing in beef canning factories. In elaboration, the ministry also warned that any person dealing in the harvesting or utilisation of wild life games without a hunting licence or trade in bush-meat in any form is liable to prosecution.
Meanwhile, some public health officers and experts who spoke to this newspaper confirmed that ‘bush-meat poses a risk to human health.’ They said that the meat was host to many deadly diseases that have already been confirmed to spread from the animals to man time and again. The experts named some of the diseases as ebola and monkey pox amongst others.