MOSCOW, March 13 (RAPSI) – A court in Moscow has fined farmer 15,000 rubles ($263) for keeping 63 exotic animals, including gharials, iguanas and penguins, and ruled to seize them, the press-service of the Moscow City Court has told RAPSI.
According to a court, businessman E.S. Khachaturyan kept such animals as chameleon, Indian star tortoise, gharials, green iguanas, Humboldt penguins, hornbills, colobus monkeys, gibbons, marmosets, ring-tailed lemurs.
The farmer had no documents that could legally confirm origin or his ownership of these animals that are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
It is currently unknown where these animals are going to be transferred to.