An appeals court in Madagascar on Wednesday upheld a six-year prison term for three people trafficking in critically endangered radically tortoise.
Two men and a woman were also fined more than $26,000 when they were convicted last month.
The suspects were arrested last year after neighbors complained of a dreadful smell in a house. Police found more than 10,000 of the reptiles covering the floor throughout the house. About 500 of them were dead.
FILE – A veterinarian holds a radiated tortoise on Aug. 2, 2017, at the zoo in Mulhouse, eastern France. VOA
The Worldwide Fund for Nature — called the World Wildlife Fund in North America — said this was a record seizure of tortoises. The survivors were cleaned up and quarantined before being released back into their natural habitat.