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A Surrey man has been caught selling fur coats made from the pelts of endangered species.
40-year-old Timothy Norris has been charged with multiple offences and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service as a result of his crime.
Norris traded furs from multiple species, including lynx, wolves, and critically endangered leopards.
Guilty
In addition to the coats, Norris was selling scarves and hats made from animals – all under the eBay handle DianaGrant77.
He was found out in February of last year by officers from the Metropolitan Police Force’s wildlife crime unit, who later raided his home.
They noted that the furs appeared to have come from ‘relatively recently’ killed animals which, given the laws currently in place in the UK, rendered Norris’ business illegal in the absence of a permit. He pled guilty on September 20.
Conservation threatened
Speaking with the Independent, the Wildlife Crime Unit’s DC Sarah Bailey said: “Offenders like Norris are helping to fuel the illegal wildlife trade.
“Leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopard populations are assessed as vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red list and any trade outside the legal framework could threaten the conservation status of remaining wild populations.”
Critically endangered
According to the International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC) Canada, leopards are now critically endangered in North Africa, the Middle East, and Russia.
The WWF notes that poaching and illegal trade have played a major role in the decline of both snow leopard and clouded leopard populations.
