{"id":105231,"date":"2020-08-03T16:47:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T23:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105231"},"modified":"2020-08-03T16:47:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T23:47:56","slug":"the-leopard-and-the-snare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/03\/the-leopard-and-the-snare\/","title":{"rendered":"The Leopard and the Snare"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"container\" class=\"style-scope ytd-channel-name\">\n<h2 id=\"text-container\" class=\"style-scope ytd-channel-name\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><a class=\"yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" spellcheck=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCgnFSj7jQffD5V5m05j4dPw\">Newsfirst Sri Lanka<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"badge badge-style-type-verified style-scope ytd-badge-supported-renderer\">\u00a0<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Leopard and the Snare\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qsZX1CRyN88?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Black Leopard Death Court\ncase held on July 29, 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A short report<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you would be interested to\nknow, the case relating to the death of the Black Leopard was taken up at the\nHatton Magistrate&#8217;s Court on&nbsp;July\n29, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Justice for Animals and\nNature organisation ( now in the process of incorporation ) sought to intervene&nbsp;in the Case when the case was\nresumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legal team comprised:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anura Meddegoda, P.C.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senaka Weeraratna, (Attorney &#8211; at &#8211; law), and two other Juniors<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A number of supporters of our\n&#8216;Justice for Animals and Nature&#8217; organisation, were present in court including\nsix monks led by Ven. Omalpe Sobhita Thero, the head of the Sri Bodhiraja\nPadanama.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court proceedings\ncommenced at 9. 35 a.m.&nbsp;Our case was\ntaken up at 11.00 a.m.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proceedings dealt mainly\nwith the right of intervention of two external parties that sought to intervene\nto look after the interest of the dead leopard and animal lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anura Meddegoda, P.C. made\nsome valid submissions.&nbsp;He pointed\nout that setting up snares to trap endangered animals was a clear violation of\nthe Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, No. 2 of 1937 as amended by a number\nof later statutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, setting up\nsnares was a non &#8211; bailable offence under the law, and therefore the Department\nof Wildlife Conservation (DWC) had erred in not objecting to the release of the\nsuspect by the Police on Bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Magistrate heard\nsubmissions from all relevant parties including the lawyers appearing for the\ntwo parties seeking to intervene, the DWC and the lawyer for the suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Magistrate made the point\nthat the interests of the cultivators who grow food in these areas and their\nneed to protect crops from wild animals must also be taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Magistrate said that he\nwill issue the Order concerning the Applications to intervene on October 28,\n2020, and adjourned Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After we left the Court House\n( see the photos attached showing us leaving the Court) we were interviewed by\nthe Media at a nearby Buddhist Temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voice cuts were taken\nfrom&nbsp; Ven. Omalpe Sobhita Thero,&nbsp; Anura Meddegoda, P.C., Senaka\nWeeraratna and the Officer from the DWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TV News Channels screened\nscenes recorded on that day in Hatton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Newspapers published accounts\nof the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was pleased to learn from\nthe Official of the DWC, that 400 snares meant to trap wild animals in the\nmountainous areas have already been removed and they are giving priority\nattention to such work and educating the public in that area not to set up\nsnares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is heartening to know that\nHon. Mahinda Rajapakse has ordered a probe into Leopard deaths in Snares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.daijiworld.com\/news\/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=733073\">https:\/\/www.daijiworld.com\/news\/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=733073<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Founder member of &#8216;Justice\nfor Animals and Nature&#8217;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See also<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Election Manifestos must carry commitment to protect Animals&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/asiantribune.com\/node\/94515\">http:\/\/asiantribune.com\/node\/94515<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-lankaweb-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Ws9i1tBHLs\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/31\/election-manifestos-must-carry-commitment-to-protect-animals-and-take-the-cue-from-the-objects-of-the-justice-for-animals-and-nature-organization\/\">Election Manifestos must carry commitment to protect Animals and take the cue from the objects of the \u2018Justice for Animals and Nature\u2019 organization<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Election Manifestos must carry commitment to protect Animals and take the cue from the objects of the \u2018Justice for Animals and Nature\u2019 organization&#8221; &#8212; LankaWeb.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/31\/election-manifestos-must-carry-commitment-to-protect-animals-and-take-the-cue-from-the-objects-of-the-justice-for-animals-and-nature-organization\/embed\/#?secret=z4z69qsALU#?secret=Ws9i1tBHLs\" data-secret=\"Ws9i1tBHLs\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newsfirst Sri Lanka \u00a0 Black Leopard Death Court case held on July 29, 2020 A short report As you would be interested to know, the case relating to the death of the Black Leopard was taken up at the Hatton Magistrate&#8217;s Court on&nbsp;July 29, 2020. The Justice for Animals and Nature organisation ( now in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}