Pelts arrived on July 29 flight from Athens
Author: Damian Mac Con Uladh
The 645 wolf skins were concealed in bags that were labelled ‘fur scraps’. It is not clear if the skins are from Greece’s indigenous wolf population, which is estimated to number 500-700 animals
Customs officers check wolf skins at Beijing Capital International Airport, 8 August 2013 (Reuters) Customs officials in China on Thursday seized almost 650 pieces of wolf skins that arrived on a flight from Greece last month.
The pelts, which cover a total area of 200m2 when spread out, were imported into China on July 29 on a flight from Greece to Beijing Capital International Airport, officials said, describing the haul as the biggest case of suspected smuggling of skins of endangered wild animals in China in over a decade.
According to Chinese media, the goods were packed into 30 sacks, each of which was labelled “fur scraps”. The accompanying documentation stated that the total weight of the freight was 1,400kg and was valued at $3,700.
But as that represented a price of $3 per kilo – well below the average market price for fur scraps – customs officials became suspicious and decided to carry out on inspection.
Customs officers check wolf skins at Beijing Capital International Airport, 8 August 2013 (Reuters) After x-raying the consignment, officials opened the bags to find up to twenty pelts in each sack concealed beneath fur scraps on top.
The seized skins are mostly brown in colour but there are also black- and grey-haired pelts.
A trading firm in Beijing is suspected of smuggling the wolf skins and arrests have been made, customs officials told the media. They estimate that the market value of the skins could be in the region of 1m yuan (€125,000) or more.
It is not clear if the skins are from Greece’s indigenous wolf population, which is estimated to number 500-700 animals, or were imported from elsewhere.
Exposing the Big Game 
This makes me sick!
Yep, where is this much rampant wolf poaching going on?!
This morning on NPR I heard a story about some conservation group (!) managing the Bison populations on Catalina Island by way of Birth Control. Prior to using birth control, they were managing the Bison by culling. I cannot even begin to express how much I HATE that GD word! Culling. Why don’t we start culling some humans for fuck sake?!?!
Mind you, the reason those bison were brought to Catalina Island is because they were going to be used in a film that was never made, and so the bison were abandoned on the island. Nice, huh? I’d like to smash those Hollywood fuckwads upside the head. Animals are not props, they are living, breathing, feeling beings that do not deserve to be uprooted and dumped some place.
ARGH!