A man in Israel has been sentenced to spend seven months in prison for possessing a porcupine. Dubbed by locals as a “serial porcupine hunter,” Rami Fahmawhi has a longstanding track record of hunting porcupines, which are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a protected species of least concern.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) first caught him with two full sacks full of quills and other Indian crested porcupine body parts, including pieces of stomach, in 2009, and he was soon indicted for the crime. But that didn’t stop the serial hunter from pursuing more of his prey.
Despite his 2009 brush with the law, Fahmawhi continued to hunt porcupines, although it is unknown how frequently he evaded the park authorities. Then in February this year he was again caught with at least one porcupine in his possession.
The Haifa District Court issued a $2,600 fine (NIS 10,000) but INPA was not satisfied that this sentence adequately punished the crime and so they appealed the judge’s decision.
The court accepted the appeal and Fahmawhi is expected to begin his prison sentence next month.
This is a major achievement in the struggle to preserve wildlife and in the struggle against criminals hunting and possessing protected wildlife without a permit,” according to a statement released by INPA.
The judges who overturned the fine, Shmuel Berliner, Igal Grill and Bracha Bar-Ziv, wrote that “The law defines both the terms ‘hunting’ and ‘confining’ as violations of the wild animal protection law. This is not a ‘minor’ infringement that does not justify applying the suspended sentence.”
Porcupine meat is a sought after commodity on the black market, where they sell for up to $200 each, and porcupines suffer a great deal when monogamous families are broken up by poachers.
Image of porcupine, Shutterstock
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Thanks for your response. However the recipe is still there, right now.
As is an article from yesterday about a Gazan man killed by a cow he was attempting to slaughter. Which includes text about so-called “humane” slaughter and a comment that “eating animals is human nature.”
All it takes is a little awareness to stop using and killing animals in ANY way.
You’ve definitely got a point Rena! But to be fair, that recipe was published a couple of years ago. I think we are all evolving 🙂
The fact that hunters are starting to get jail sentences is encouraging news. I have witnessed freezers stuffed full with decapitated porcupines, confiscated from illegal hunters by the Nature and Parks Authority.
Wild animals desperately need protection from humans, from outright killing, habitat invasion, and entrapment as pets or for zoos.
But what do I witness on this very page … a recipe for “Poussins Stuffed with Pine Nuts and Rice … a poussin in nothing more than a baby chicken, under a month old and hardly bigger than a man’s fist. Each one makes a serving.”
When will humans stop seeing animals, be they porcupines or chickens, as “servings?”