Hamburg, June 5, 2019 – On June 4, a Czech court sentenced big cat dealer Ludvik Berousek to two years’ suspended sentence and a fine for his involvement in the illegal trade in tigers and the processing of their body parts into tiger products. The international animal protection organization condemns this mild sentence. In 2018, published incriminating findings against Berousek around the same time that Czech police searched his property and found dead tigers, skin and other animal body parts (https://youtu.be/yYGnx1kHUsM). The cruel trade in tigers is a massive problem in the EU: There is a lack of effective regulation and monitoring of breeders and traders. calls on the European Commission to ban the trade in tigers throughout the European Union.
With such a light sentence, Berousek can continue to keep and trade in tigers and other big cats. He is left with a circus license and a commercial wildlife dealer license. In 2018 he said he kept 50 lions, 35 tigers, 10 leopards and about 100 other animals on his property near Prague.