Why are endangered species being sold on Facebook? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News Podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines to find out more about a story. and why it matters. Today, we're looking. at an investigation by the BBC into. endangered species, which has found that. tiger body parts, shark fins, and. panggalin scales are being openly sold. on Facebook. It comes as Interpol. announced the results of a global. crackdown on the wildlife trade which. led to the seizure of nearly 30,000 live. animals. We're joined today by our.

correspondent Angus Crawford who led the. investigation. Angus, tell us more. Well, it's worth saying before we even. get going that the the trade in. endangered species, the illegal trade in. endangered species is probably worth. about 23 billion US a year. And what law. enforcement say is at the top of the. tree you've got drug smuggling. You then. got gun smuggling and people smuggling. But fourth in the world is endangered. species. The trade in that. And what I. found is that it is in part being fueled.

by social media. How? Well, it was. horribly simple actually. I just set up. a fake account on Facebook and started. searching and very quickly found, for. example, a video, a real of a tiger in a. cage being poked with a stick. And the. person who had posted it then offered me. a tiger tooth which he would send to me. in the UK for about $280. This was obviously a captive tiger being. bred for this. I located a seller in.

Laos who was trying to offer me. panggalan scales. No, pengalins are. actually the world's most trafficked. species. Now, a kilo of that, $150 US. [snorts] And another user who was trying. to sell me shark fin. What the fishermen. do is they cut the fin off. They dump. the body of the shark back overboard. The shark dies. They then sell the the. fin to be used in soup. That was $50 US. for a kilo. Now, Facebook has come back. to me and said they don't allow the sale.

of endangered species on their platforms. and they say they remove the content as. soon as they become aware of it. >> What do people want these things for? >> Well, it's really interesting. Essentially, what you've got is um a. demand in certain parts of the world for. both food and also for traditional. particularly Chinese medicine. So, if. you take the panggalin, panggalin, which. is this extraordinary animal, look it. up, it's beautiful. If you look at it, it's the only animal covered in scales. It's a mammal covered in scales. And it.

it eats ants. It's got no means of. defending itself other than rolling up. into a ball. Now, why do people want it? Well, in certain parts of the world, particularly in China, it's prized for. its scales, which erroneously they think. is useful in Chinese traditional. medicine to help cure skin diseases. And. they also use the flesh for eating and. bizarrely enough in something called. panggalin wine. All of this is a massive. trade, a huge trade. Facebook has said. to you that it doesn't allow trade in. this sort of things on its platform. You.

found though that they're there. Surely. it wouldn't be that difficult to stop. it. Well, you know, Facebook say they. have moderation teams. They say they. don't allow this stuff. They say that. they look for this material. And of. course, when it's reported to them, they. take it down. But you've got to remember. in some parts of the world, Facebook is. the internet. You know, that is how you. access all the information you want. That is how you sell what you want. So. in certain parts of the world, for. example, Laos, Vietnam, everything that. is sellable will be placed onto Facebook. and Facebook is playing whack-a-ole. I.

imagine the moment it takes down one of. these posts, another one appears. somewhere else. So they face a very, very difficult task. But it's not just. on social media. It's also available. elsewhere online as well. Yeah, cuz you. found sellers right here in the UK. This. isn't in a place where it's difficult. for authorities to to to crack down it. right here in a westernized. industrialized country. >> Yeah, exactly. So, I started searching. using particularly Mandarin and. Cantonese search terms. I don't want.

anyone else to do this. I'm not giving. them any ideas. But very quickly, I. found three companies in the UK who were. openly selling both shark fin and. seahorses. Now, seahorses are a. protected species. It's a criminal. offense to advertise and sell them in. this country. But I was able to, having. taken legal and editorial policy advice, to buy about $75. worth of seahorses from a company in the. UK which was delivered to me within two. days, dead dried seahorses. I took them.

to an expert who said that even though. I'd only bought 15, that probably. represented about a thousand dead. seahorses. Why? Well, because the male. of the species carries the babies. And. within this 15 there were five which. were pregnant male seahorses. Each of. them carry about 200. The other thing. about the specimens I found were they. were very small. So it showed they were. clearly fishing the youngest the. juveniles. So this was a population. according to the expert I spoke to that. was clearly on the edge the very edge of.

collapse. >> So what are the authorities doing about. it? >> Well the authorities actually today have. announced uh the results of a great big. crackdown globally. Interpol, which is. the International Police Enforcement. Organization, involved more than 130. countries. They say that in September, October, in a big operation, they. managed to seize about 30,000 live. specimens of endangered species and a. huge amount of meat and other. paraphernalia. And in the UK, the border. force, which which covers the Home. Office and uh protects the UK's borders,

they say they found about 250 endangered. species, including at the port of Dover. in the south of England. two boa. constrictors hidden on the back seat of. a car coming through uh the Channel. Tunnel. They say there's been a 73% rise. in seizures in the UK uh compared to. 2023. But the fundamental problem is law. enforcement has other priorities. This. trade is absolutely enormous and they're. fighting against a trade that is bigger. than their enforcement powers. Yeah, I. mean I've been reporting on similar.

stories pretty much since I've been a. journalist and and always the. authorities think they've sorted it out. and then another one comes along. Are. they ever going to be able to get on top. of this? The basic problem is where. there is demand, there is supply. Certain populations. want this kind of material. They move. around the world. Therefore, the trade. moves with them. And as I said at the. beginning, the big problem they have. here is that the same kind of criminal. gangs that move drugs, guns, and people, well, they'll move endangered species.

because a they can make a lot of money, for example, at the moment, dried. seahorse is worth per kilo exactly the. same amount as silver. So, think of that. as the amount of money you can make, but. also the risk. If you're caught. transporting drugs, you're going to. prison for a very long time or. potentially in some countries facing the. death penalty. If you're caught with a. lorry load of seahorses, h not quite the. same kind of penalty. So there's the big. problem facing law enforcement, facing. all of us, because some of these. populations that we're talking about,

seahorses for example, they are edging. towards extinction. Thanks, Angus. Angus Crawford. There'll be more on this story in the. Global News podcast along with other. stories from around the world. Subscribe. wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You. can also subscribe to us here on. YouTube. And if you have an idea for a. story which you think we should cover, do message us in the comments below.