A gang of illegal poachers, including a dentist, was busted by the Brazilian police for killing 1000 protected jaguars.

The gang of seven members was arrested from Acre in Brazil and is suspected of killing thousands of endangered animals like red brocket deer, collared peccary, capybara, and jaguars.

Temistocles Barbosa Freire, a dentist, who is the longest-serving gang member, is believed to have killed 1000 jaguars since 1987. Images of him carrying a dead jaguar on his shoulder and being surrounded by hunting dogs have been photographed.

Brazilian authorities monitored the gang’s movements and hacked their conversations for three months prior to their arrest.

The case against the gang was opened up in Federal Court and then all of its members were arrested. In those three months when they were being monitored, they killed 8 jaguars, 10 collared peccaries, 2 deer and 13 capybaras.

The gang used the sound of high-pitched Brazilian drum, cuica to attract jaguars. Jaguar is known to be the largest cat in Latin America and all international trade in jaguars or its body parts is illegal.

Hunting of jaguars is banned in Brazil, Columbia, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, French Guiana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and the US.

Another case of an American dentist, Walter Palmer, who killed a lion, Cecil, in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe made the headlines a few years ago. University of Oxford’s research team was studying the lion.

It was wounded by Palmer with an arrow in July 2015. After tracking it down, he further killed it by shooting an arrow.

Palmer had a permit and thus wasn’t charged with any crime although he received extreme criticism. Five months after Cecil was killed, The United States Fish and Wildlife Service added lions in West, Central Africa and India to the endangered species list to prevent killing of lions.

The investigation in Brazil is ongoing and if found guilty, the members of the gang would face prison sentences and fines.

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