Microchips to Save Peru's Alpacas

lakeesis writes "BBC News has published an article stating: 'Peru has launched a campaign to implant microchips in hundreds of pedigree alpacas to try to stop the best animals being smuggled out of the country. Officials say they know alpacas are being sneaked across Peru's borders'."

Comments

Technology for the sake of technology?

[metlin]

All it takes for the people smuggling the animals is to take a hand-held scanner and find out the location of the microchip and cut it out.

If it is easy to implant, it would be easy to remove.

Hmm, looks like they are just trying to throw technology at a problem hoping it would work.

Then again, ofcourse, the smugglers maybe quite unaware of this and the more gullible ones may just get caught.

And oh, first post?

Re:Technology for the sake of technology?

[shikra]

Apparently you have not had any real world contact with such technology. I happen to be in rather close contact with the Asian Arowana (Scleropages formosus) industry, and this technology has been used rather successfully. The fish has been deemed endangered by CITES, and as such it would be illegal to catch it from the wild. CITES-registered farms are required to tag each fish with an electronic microchip, and these farm-raised fish can then be exported or sold domestically. All the officials needed to do during their routine checks for illegal stock is to scan the fish in question with a hand-held scanner, which would reveal a registration number instantly (which could be matched with a paper certificate of authenticity).

Re:Technology for the sake of technology?

[kfg]

the smugglers maybe quite unaware of this and the more gullible ones may just get caught.

The people who do the smuggling are not peasants or petty criminals. It's an upscale crime undertaken by those who are already quite well off, by the very nature of what's required to pull it off. Smugglers in business suits driving Mercedes, who read newspapers.

And a legitimate pedigreed Purvian alpaca might bring as much as $100,000.

That's right, for a single animal. We're talking big business here. An American bred alpaca with a couple of show ribbons to its credit might well run you $30,000.

The headline is misleading. The Peruvian alpaca is in no danger. It's in danger of spreading. What's at risk is the market value of Peruvian alpaca fleece. For the most part what's going on constitutes what most people think of as "saving" an animal today.

Camalids are being reintroduced into territories in which they have become extinct.

This is a trade embargo vs. free trade/open market issue, not a "saving the poor little furry thing" issue. The only animals being moved are pedigree domestic stock. 4H club stuff. Legitimate tradable goods that the government doesn't want traded out of the country.

KFG

Re:Removal?

[0x0d0a]

You are assuming an even distribution in alpaca quality. We know that this is not the case, as there are specific alpacas that are banned from being exported.

If smugglers are trying to export the best of the best, it's likely that:

* These alpacas are separated from the rest of the herd to avoid unwanted damage and breeding. This probably makes them easier to identify.

* Even if mixed with lesser speciments of their breed, these alpacas may be visually differentiable to someone familiar with judging alpaca quality. For instance, let us assume that Peru is breeding alpacas to have particularly large, firm rear ends. One would imagine that someone that has worked intimately with alpacas for years would be able to quickly visually skim over alpacas and identify the ones to be stolen. It's even possible that they could take part in an "inside job" -- being hired by an alpaca owner, identifying the best alpacas, and then taking a list or marking these to later be stolen.

* There is presumably some dissuasive factor involved in making the statement of microchip presence at *all*. Heck, the chips don't even really have to be there -- it'd drive a smuggler mad to think that he stole what seems to be a really excellent, high-quality alpaca, but cannot find the supposed embedded chip.

* I'm of the suspicion that many Peruvian alpaca rustlers may have been deprived of a thorough statistics education (thus forcing them to smuggle alpacas instead of becoming credit card market analysts). They may not catch on to how unlikely it is to get the short straw -- Americans certainly don't when it comes to lotteries, for instance.