An elderly Swiss couple living in northern Malaysia face up to three years in prison for keeping eight endangered or protected animals at their restaurant, a wildlife official said Tuesday.
Authorities seized Monday a pangolin, three slow lorises, an owl, a monkey, a python and a civet cat from the front yard of the house, where Jacob Stunzi, 71 and his wife Doris, 70, also run an eatery, said Terengganu state wildlife department director, Rozidan Mohamad Yassin.
He said they will be charged under the Wildlife Protection Act and could face a maximum of three years imprisonment or a fine of 3,000 ringgit (US$790; euro600) or 5,000 ringgit (US$1,315; euro996) for each animal, depending on whether it was categorized as endangered or protected.
Rozidan said the couple had lived in Malaysia for 27 years and should have been aware that the laws here requires a permit for the animals. He said the couple claimed the animals were their pets, and there was no immediate suspicion that the animals may have been kept to be served in the restaurant as exotic food.
Stunzi, a retired sailor, told the New Straits Times newspaper that he was not aware that he needed a permit to keep the animals, which he had purchased from villagers who patronized his restaurant in Cendering in the northern Terengganu state.
{{/usCountry}}Stunzi, a retired sailor, told the New Straits Times newspaper that he was not aware that he needed a permit to keep the animals, which he had purchased from villagers who patronized his restaurant in Cendering in the northern Terengganu state.
{{/usCountry}}The villagers "did not know what to do with the animals," he said. "Out of pity for the animals, I bought them cheap and cared for them. Stunzi said the animals were kept in a "mini zoo" in front of his restaurant and had become the main attraction for his customers.
"The animals are very much domesticated," he was quoted as saying. He said he bought the python last year for 50 ringgit (US$13; euro10) and the own for 30 ringgit (US$8; euro6). He did not say how much he paid for the other animals.
Protected and endangered species are covered by strict wildlife laws in Malaysia, but conservation bodies say enforcement is sometimes hampered by the ease of smuggling and illegal trade through the country's porous northern forest border with Thailand.