A Milo cereal box is many things:
Appetising, delightful and generally chock full of happiness and rainbows.
And yet, a Milo cereal box could also be other things, such as a makeshift piggy bank, range-limited binoculars or as the following man exemplifies:
A home for exotic animals.
Man Tried to Smuggle Exotic Animals into S’pore By Putting Them Inside a Milo Cereal Box
According to TODAYonline, the co-owner of an exotic animals shop in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, has pleaded guilty to importing 22 illegal animals such as poison dart frogs and an Argentine tegu into Singapore.
The animals are believed to have been housed in individual plastic containers, including biscuit tins and a breakfast cereal box.
The court heard that Mitchell Edberg Li Heyi took orders from Singapore customers: he retrieved the animals from suppliers in Malaysia and brought them across the Causeway.
In the wee hours of 10 November last year (2019), Li attempted to drive through Woodlands Checkpoint but was apprehended by an immigration officer.
The animals were found in his car, with the frogs and geckos contained in two separate sealed biscuit tins and the tegu placed in a breakfast cereal box.
These included a sugar glider, two leopard geckos, 18 poison dart frogs of three different species and a type of large lizard called the black-and-white tegu.
The poison dart frogs and Argentine tegu, in particular, are considered endangered species: licenses are required to import or keep any of the animals in Singapore in a legal manner.
According to TODAYonline, he purportedly kept them inside the makeshift ‘homes’ for at least five hours. There was zero ventilation.
One of the frogs died that day, while the others either died after a while or had to be euthanised due to a fungal disease.
Thirteen of the frogs were meant for a Singaporean customer by the name of Jonathan Wong Kai Kit. Wong had been fined S$6,600 in April for assisting Li in the importation of amphibians into Singapore.
Another individual ordered the tegu for S$600 and paid a ‘delivery’ fee of S$100. Li had promised to deliver the animal to the customer’s residential address.
Another man ordered two sugar gliders for S$180 and paid half as a deposit. It’s unclear, however, why Li only had one sugar glider in his possession when caught.
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Sentencing
In mitigation, Li’s lawyer Mr Tiah Kiang Choon stated that his client did not receive high profits from the business – it was only a few thousand dollars at most.
The lawyer added that Li had also caused pain and suffering to the animals because he was not knowledgeable enough, which led to an “inadvertent error”.
Li’s private-hire occupation was also insufficient to feed his family, Mr Tiah said.
“He seized the opportunity out of desperation to earn money to support his family and ensure that his daughter could continue receiving medical treatment,” the lawyer told the court.
Li pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Animals and Birds Act and the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act. He was sentenced to two months’ jail and a fine of S$9,600 on Thursday (4 June 2020).
It’s believed that another 23 similar charges were taken into account while sentencing.
Due to an inability to pay the fine, he will serve another four weeks’ and four days’ jail.
He was also ordered to pay S$10,900 to the National Parks Board (NParks) for “expenses in housing the endangered creatures”. As he cannot afford to pay that amount as well, Li conveyed to the court via his lawyer that he will serve two more weeks of jail time to compensate.
For each charge under the Endangered Species (Import and Export Act), Li could have faced a fine of up to S$50,000 for each species, a jail term of up to two years, or both.
And to think it all started with biscuit tins and a Milo cereal box.
Just goes to show that Milo cereal boxes aren’t as omnipotent as some would perceive.
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