June 18, 2001
LONDON_ A Nigerian couple that made a profitable living selling bush meat in Europe was hauled off to an English jail on Friday for trafficking in endangered species and driving them further to extinction.
Mobolaji Osakuade, 40, and his wife Rose Kinnane, 35, had been selling bush meat that included Tantalus monkeys and giant scaly anteaters. They were being offered as part of an exotic menu of jungle dishes from their shop Mercyland Trading in Dalston Market.
The two also sold smuggled snake and lizard skins_ banned in the United Kingdom_ in the East London store for juju or traditional ethnic medicines. They also traded in leopard and tiger parts for anyone who could afford them.
But their big money makers were whole lions which they sold for a staggering 5,000 pounds sterling, a head. Antelopes, porcupines, goats, cane rats and large live snails all from the West African forests were all available.
The Old Bailey, Britain's criminal court, was told that the bush meat operation could have contributed to the of the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease that have ravaged English farmers, as well as salmonella infections.
In the last few years the United Kingdom's beef industry has suffered from various diseases that have wiped out livestock including mad cow diseases.
This was the first ever bush meat case to be brought before an English court and Judge Peter Fingret said the two were "full, willing and enthusiastic participants" in their bush meat business. He sentenced them to four months jail. They had faced up to seven years in jail.
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