THE ANIMAL CONNECTION: The Confessions of an Ex-Wild Animal Trafficker

by Jean-Yves Domalain ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 30, 1977

An exposè of animal trafficking which rates the animals several notches higher than the men who exploit them. A poacher turned gamekeeper, Domalain spent lucrative years in Southeast Asia, using bogus credentials to export rare species to zoos and circuses around the world. His descriptions of capture and transport practices are appalling. Cages that provide no space for movement are crammed with assorted species, then left in airless rooms or unprotected outdoors. The few surviving animals have been traumatized, and the seedy life that awaits them in zoos is little improvement. Domalain's attestations of widespread profiteering, full of spicy anecdotes, are persuasive, but his contempt for former associates--from the ""little yellow man"" who kills the mother gibbon to snatch the baby to his French countryman holding an electric prod--reflects the unrelenting zeal of the convert. Thus, Thai hunters prefer traps that mutilate to those that don't, the Laotians ""are obviously not cut out for work,"" and his ""French customers were by far the least honest and the least creditable."" Such rampant stereotyping undermines Domalain's call for an end to trafficking and severe restrictions imposed on zoos.

Pub Date: June 30, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION