Police in Dong Nai Province Thursday recommended charges against two more people, the father and brother of a man arrested earlier for allegedly killing an endangered gaur, the world's largest bovine, in a protected area in February.
Police in Dong Nai Province Thursday recommended charges against two more people, the father and brother of a man arrested earlier for allegedly killing an endangered gaur, the world’s largest bovine, in a protected area in February.
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| The gaur carcass found at the Ma Da Forest in Dong Nai Culture and Nature Reserve. |
Le Thanh Son, 43, and Le Nguyen Anh Yen, 17, will be charged with illegally possessing guns.
Son’s eldest son Le Nguyen Anh Hung, 21, Pham Thanh Liem, 16, and Le Minh Tien, 32, were arrested in March for shooting down a two-year old gaur (Bos gaurus) in the Dong Nai Culture and Nature Reserve.
Hung and Liem face jail terms of up to seven years or a fine of up to VND500 million ($22,500).
According to investigators, they went hunting in the reserve with a homemade gun at around 9 p.m. on February 26.
After finding a herd of around 10 gaurs near a waterhole, Hung shot a female aged around two. The 200-kg animal ran for a short distance before collapsing.
The duo informed Tien and they slaughtered the bovine in the forest. They drove out of the forest on two motorbikes, passing a ranger station, at around 3 a.m.
They sold 51kg of meat to a woman in the southern province of Binh Phuoc for VND6.1 million (US$273).
Prosecutors said Son and Yen had helped Hung hide the guns he used in their house.
Conservationists estimate there are around 500 wild gaurs left in Vietnam, 300 of them in the more than 100,000-hectare (247,100-acre) Dong Nai Culture and Nature Reserve.
The number has fallen from more than 3,000 in the 1970s, mostly due to poaching.
(Source:TNNews)
