The animal landed at Heathrow Airport on 22 December. It was one of four being transported from a safari park in South Africa to Russia.
Checks revealed one of the male cheetahs wasn’t micro-chipped, representing a breach of Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulations governing the transportation of endangered animals, and therefore wasn’t properly identifiable.
Following an investigation by the UK Border Agency’s specialist CITES team the animal was seized. It has been named Isaac by UK Border Agency officers and will now be re-homed at a UK wildlife park.
Illicit trade in animals
Marc Owen, head of UK Border Agency operations at Heathrow, said: “Cheetahs are an endangered animal. The illicit trade in animals is a serious contributory factor in the threat of extinction faced by many endangered species, and that is why the rules around moving them are so strict.”
Owen continued: “Each animal has to be clearly identifiable by a unique marking, for instance a microchip, to ensure they can be tracked and traced and to prevent them being sold illegally. At this stage we don’t know whether this was simply an error or whether there were other reasons for it.”
Of Isaac’s three travelling companions two female cheetahs have continued on their journey to Russia, while another male will now be transported back to South Africa..
