A Legal Analysis on the Exotic Animal

Online Trading in Malaysia

Presenters:
1. Hawani
2. Sharifah
3. Maisarah
4. Naz
5. Nana
 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
DEFINITION
1) Exotic Pets
a) The National Humane Education Society
• Any wild species kept for human pleasure or companionship
b) The Great Project
• Depends on what is trendy at that time and how much the society’s
knowledge on exotic pet at that time
2) Online Trading
• Transactions that do not involve face to face communication and in
most case contracts of sale are not made on the paper (Naemah Amin
& Roshaliza Mohd Amin, 2013)
EXAMPLE OF EXOTIC ANIMALS
 WHY WE CHOOSE THIS TOPIC ?
• Trading involving exotic animals conducted freely on social media

• Wildlife crime is third largest illegal trade after drugs and guns
• Malaysia has the highest penetration of online shoppers whereby 67 % of Malaysians
goes for online transactions
• Malaysia got 2nd placing for E-commerce market (19%) compared to Singapore at 24 %
 PROBLEM STATEMENT 1
There is a problem in the current wildlife laws. Despite the existence of
several statutes namely Animals Act 1953, Wildlife Conservation Act 2010,
Animal Welfare Act 2015 and the International Trade in Endangered Species
Act 2008, there had been an illegal online sale of exotic animal. This problem
has negatively impacted the protection of the wildlife in Malaysia. A possible
cause of the problem is there is limited oversight on the sale of exotic
animals online. Perhaps a study in regards of the wildlife law is needed in
order to understand the laws and to highlights any loopholes that had cause
the inconvenience.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT 2
There are various methods on the sale of exotic animals
via online used by the online traders, making it difficult to
identify the real masterminds behind the operation .
a) Exotic animal trading via private parties.
b) Publicly available in social media.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3
• There is a problem in exotic animals online trading
when animals are exported or imported without
permits and paperwork falsely declaring them as
captive-bred.

• Existence of fake permits, which states that the animals were bred
in captivity
• The wildlife is often taken illegally from the wild and laundered into
the global market via captive-breeding businesses.
• Despite the easy steps to get the licence, there still seems to be no
awareness or urgency from the pet owners to get the licence.

• This problem has negatively impacted the population of exotic animals in

Malaysia because those animals was taken from the wild tremendously.

• A possible cause of this problem is due to the lack of evaluation of

permits/ licences by the authorities.

• Perhaps a study in regards to the permit and licences policy could

remedy the situation.
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the statutory provision that covers the practice
of smuggling and selling exotic animal via online?
2. How did the exotic animals are being traded by illegal
online traders to the buyer through illegal smuggling?
3. What are the laws and regulations which governs the
permit to be granted upon keeping the protected exotic
animal?
 OBJECTIVES
1. To analyze the statutory provision that covers the
practice of exotic animal online trading.
2. To examine the issue of exotic animals being traded by
illegal online traders to the buyer through illegal
smuggling.
3. To study the laws or regulation which governs the permit
to be granted upon keeping the protected exotic animal.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In general, this research is achieved through the qualitative research.
Doctrinal Research

O1: To analyze the statutory provision that covers the practice of online exotic animal trading in Malaysia.

- focuses on determining what the law is on a particular point.

- locating and interpreting relevant primary and secondary sources of law
- suggest ways in which the law should develop.
- Therefore, this approach is the most suitable method to achieve objective 1 which is to analyze the statutory provision that covers the practice of
online exotic animal trading in Malaysia.

Empirical Research

O2: To examine issues of keeping exotic animal as pets which is supplied through illegal smuggling into or out of Malaysia.
O3: To study the laws or regulation which governs the permit to be granted upon keeping the protected exotic animals.

- This type of research includes ways to gain information based on observation, surveys and interviews.
- Both objective 2 and 3 will be achieved through interviewing the authorities like public servant, ministerial officer or the NGOs body.
- Objective 2: an interview session with the Investigative Consultant of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, a Non-Governmental Organisation.
- Objective 3: an interview session with the Enforcement Officer of PERHILITAN, from the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment.
 SCOPE AND LIMITATION
• For this research, the scope is only on Exotic Animal Online Trading In
Malaysia.
• Limitations:
– Only on exotic animals online trading because of time constraint.
• Not all animals or all kind of trading.
• The time frame to do this research is very limited which cause the area of this research proposal
to be narrow down only to law of exotic animals online trading.
– Around Malaysia and not other countries because of territorial limitation.
• Not other countries because it would be costly, time consuming, no transportation etc.
– Only look into certain laws because of jurisdictional limitation.
• There are lack of reliable data and jurisdiction on the topic of exotic animals online trading in
Malaysia.
Benefits to the future generation
- Extinct animal: Tasmanian tiger, Dodo bird, Pyrenean Ibex, Great Aux bird and
Quagga (Gerken, 2013)
- Conservationists have warned that some of the world’s most exotic animals could be
extinct within months (Knapton, 2017)
- Awareness on the issues of exotic animals trade can be raised with supports of
recent issues, legislations and facts.
- Delving in the topic much further will help ones to understand more about the
prominent threats that had been looming over the societies.
- The reality needs to be grasped in order for the problems to be solved. If not for us,
then the least, is for the future.
Significance
Keeping the balance of the ecosystem
- The greater demand of exotic animals in online trading has increasing the animals sold
where species are often misidentified or described as captive bred, even if their true
origin is wild.
- The number of hunters who hunt the healthy and young wildlife continues to thrive in
order to supply the exotic animals to the online traders.
- Clean Malaysia (Leon, 2017) reported that most of the animals seized from the illegal
traders are often youngsters who belongs to the protected species.
- Hence, this study is to offer remedies to counter and address the existing problems.
- An analysis from this study will be able to examine about the dirty side of exotic
animal pet online trade and gather necessary information on the critical current issues
which is not cover in other study.
Expand knowledge on the current law
- Dr. William Schaedla describe Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 as “the first major
revamp of the national wildlife law in over 30 years.” (Hence, 2010)
- Failure to consistently revise the legislation leading to loopholes i.e online trafficking
- This research will come in handy as it cited many of the sections of the Act in order
to raised a better understanding on the existing practice
- But will also, highlight the lacking of the statute.
- Thusly, giving a better view on the state of the current law, mostly on what should
be updated in order to cover all aspects of the law without leaving any lacunae that
can be exploit.
Improving the standard of health
- WWF Report (Dalberg, 2012): 75% of infectious diseases in humans are of animal
origin, most of which originate in wildlife.
- Online exotic wildlife trafficking often failed to take measurable steps in making sure
that such animal is free from any type of disease.
- This also include the spread of zoonotic diseases, including SARS and Ebola,
originating with contact with illegal wildlife.
- Birds is a commonly trafficked, where the wildlife trade had threaten approximately
one third of birds worldwide (Bending, 2015).
- It also have a high risk in transmitting influenza such as a case of a wide-spread of
influenza virus A or H5N1..
- In terms of health, a person would become more careful.
- Therefore, giving the awareness of how easily disease can be transmitted via exotic
animal, will make the consumer to think twice before purchasing.
 Literature review

- This research will going to cover the position of

online exotic animal’s trading that is not covered
in the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010; Section
63.
- The scope for this research is centralizing on the
online exotic animal trading in Malaysia and not
wildlife in general. This review will focus on the
major issues arising regarding to exotic animals.
1. The statutory provision provides limited standard of protection
towards exotic animals as there is a lacuna in the law.
• TheStar Online (2008): Dr. Loh Chee Leong, Malaysian Nature Society
Executive Director stated that the law is outdated and has many
loopholes. He urged that the law need be reviewed urgently.
• The ASEAN Secretriat (2004): CITES has given most attention, in
reviewing the weak law and coordinating the enforcement action.
• New York Times (2005): Most of the collectors did not realise that
the same law apply even in cyberspace
• International Fund for Animal Welfare (2008): Exotic animals
trafficking receive little attention as it have low priority on the law
enforcement agenda
2. Different approach is used by the online
traders to begin their trade
• New Straits Time (2018): online traders acted as middlemen on
behalf of the actual supplier i.e ‘illegal smuggler’ making it
difficult for both of them to be arrest by the authority.
• It is supported by Dionisius Sharma (2018): even if the arrest
are made by the authorities the one who had been caught is
not the real mastermind.
3. Permit and paperwork are often falsely declared
• TheStar online (2018): Salman Saaban, director of
PERHILITAN stated there were legitimate business selling
wild animals which were registered with the department
and had the proper documentation.
• In contrast, TheStar (2017): John & Gray stated that wildlife
is often taken illegally from the wild and laundered into the
global market via captive breeding businesses.
• Those animals are exported with paperwork falsely
declaring them as captive-bred. It is often used to launder
animals caught in the wild as ‘commercially bred’.
 GANTT CHART
MONTHS
ACTIVITIES SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5
Revise statutes/
regulations

Research through
library based

Analyse and review

all the material

Evaluate all the

sources
Submission chapter 1

Interview public
authority ie:
TRAFFIC, PERHILITAN

Observation on
exotic online trading

Submission Chapter
2- 4

Submission Chapter
5
Submission final
report