While hunting in the forest in Ninh Hoa district, Khanh Hoa province, two men shot two langurs to death. The local court sentenced them to a total of 54 months in jail.

Chanh and Canh at the court on July 2.

On July 2, the court of Ninh Hoa district, in the Central Highlands province of Khanh Hoa, sentenced Phan Van Chanh, 31, to 30 months in jail, and Le Minh Canh, 36, to 24 months in jail for violating rules on protection of rare wild animals.

According to investigators, the two men went hunting in Hon Heo forest on January 19, 2009. They met a flock of langurs. Chanh shot to death two of them. They disemboweled the monkeys in order to keep them from decomposing quickly. They then stole two domestic goats.

The two were caught in the act on January 21 while they were transporting the bodies of the four animals back to Ninh Hoa town.

According to the Institute for Forestry Ecology and Resources, the two monkeys are black-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nigripes), an endangered species of douc found in forests of Vietnam.

This is the first time Ninh Hoa district has prosecuted a wildlife hunting case.

From December 2007 to May 2009, the local media reported four cases of killing 14 black-shanked Douc langurs in Khanh Hoa province. Some said that if these cases had been judged strictly, the two next cases might not have happened (five langurs killed in Cam Lam district on March 2009 and five in Ninh Hoa on May 11, 2009).

Previously, Cam Lam district’s court announced 9 years and 9 months in jail and fine of 8 million dong on three hunters for killing nine langurs at the Hon Ba nature reserve on March 9, 2009.

VT