A woman from China pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across a Vermont lake into Canada by kayak.
Wan Yee Ng, 41, was arrested on the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she was about to get into an inflatable kayak with a duffle bag on Lake Wallace, according to a Border Patrol agent’s affidavit filed in federal court.
Agents had been notified by Royal Canadian Mounted Police that two other people, including a man who was believed to be her husband, had started to paddle an inflatable watercraft from the Canadian side of the lake toward the United States, according to court documents.
The agents searched her heavy duffle bag and found 29 live eastern box turtles individually wrapped in socks, the affidavit states. Eastern box turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for $1,000 each, the affidavit stated.
Her cellphone was seized, and a search by law enforcement found communications showing that she tried to smuggle the turtles into Canada so that they could eventually be sold for a profit in Hong Kong, according to the plea agreement. Ng, from Hong Kong, was living in Canada.
The Asian black market for rare, endangered and protected species makes me sad af. All the needless killings for some ivory dust or shark fin it’s nuts to me. All in the name of fringe bs beliefs
Turtles. Do. Not. Pets. Make! They are riddled with a myriad of diseases! You may as well tie a leash around a raw chicken cutlet!
I suspect the ultimate destination for these turtles was “being consumed” vs being a pet.
Processed into Chinese medicine type consumption, rather than food?
Did Yoda write this?
Ending a sentence with “make” as above is an old poetic style, used sometimes for emphasis. It comes from a phrase by Aristotle: “One swallow does not a summer make…”
But the quote above is from the tv show “Schitt’s Creek” - which is a hilarious sitcom, if you’re able to I recommend checking it out.
Here’s the scene quoted above:
I admit I’ve never tried to smuggle 29 turtles into Canada, but there has to be a better way.
New board game just dropped! Smugglers of Canaan.
Nature’s suction cup
