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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
News Is that a lizard in your pants?
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:23 PM
In news you can't make up ...
A German reptile collector has been jailed for 14 weeks and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine for plundering New Zealand's wild gecko and skink populations, a judge ruled Tuesday.Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, is to be deported to Germany as soon as he is released from prison, Judge Colin Doherty ordered.
Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear.
Fourteen of the 15 adult female geckos and 12 of the 14 female skinks were pregnant, officials said.
Kubus admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and hunting protected wildlife without authority, pleading guilty to two charges under the Wildlife Act and five under the Trade in Endangered Species Act.
Department of Conservation prosecutor Mike Bodie told Christchurch District Court that Kubus could have faced potential maximum penalties of 500,000 New Zealand dollars and six months in prison.
Bodie told Doherty that the department sought a deterrent sentence for "the most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more."
Read the rest of this MSNBC.com article here.
Most people try to keep lizards out of their pants, like this fool:
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