WSPA gives a helping hand to the Met

For many riding out the financial doom and gloom has not been easy, unless you’re a banker with little conscious about your annual bonus.

Historically conservation groups struggle even in buoyant times to get funding so it came as a bit of surprise to see the tables turn this week.  Today the charity, The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), launched a unique partnership with the Metropolitan Police (Met) helping to fund its Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU). To mark the start of the joint collaboration a wildlife exhibition of confiscated goods were put on show today at City Hall.

The force had been struggling to keep resources going due to lack of funding and like a lot of businesses and departments at the moment was threatened with closure due to the recession.

Thanks to the cash injection from WSPA officers can continue to crack down on the illegal trade in wildlife which regularly passes through the capital. The Met has seized more than 30,000 endangered species since 1995.

WSPA UK Head of External Affairs Simon Pope explained: “Without the specialist skills and knowledge of the WCU, wildlife crime in London could flourish. This is not some niche, illicit trade carried out by petty part-time villains.

“It is a major source of revenue for a global network of hardened criminals, gangs and drug lords; all growing rich from the trafficking of wildlife and none about to have a crisis of conscience and stop what they are doing.”