50 live crocodiles seized at Heathrow Airport

Five boxes of ten crocodiles were confiscated once they were discovered at Heathrow Airport in cramped conditions. (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)

Fives boxes of live year-old crocodiles were seized at Heathrow Airport last week because of unfair transportation conditions.

Fifty young saltwater reptiles arrived in London on a flight from Malaysia, where their cramped quarters were discovered to have violated transportation regulations.

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Ten crocodiles were loaded into each of the five boxes, the BBC reported. However, the boxes were only supposed to hold four of the foot-long crocodiles.

The overcrowded boxes caused the crocodiles to fight during the approximately 14-hour flight. One of the reptiles died because of the conditions.

The foot-long saltwater reptiles had been placed in small boxes that violated animal transportation laws. (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)

A Border Force spokesman said “little attention” had been paid to the crocodiles’ welfare, BBC reported.

The animals were heading to a farm in Cambridgeshire, where they were to be bred for meat, the news site reported, but were confiscated by officials from the Conventions on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

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Grant Miller, head of the national Border Force CITES team at Heathrow, said to BBC, "It is just not acceptable for reptiles to be transported in this way."

"We will seize anything that contravenes CITES regulations, so this should serve as a warning to those thinking about transporting wildlife in such conditions,” he added.

The 49 crocodiles will be re-homed.