Silicone Geckos

No.This has and never will go past my lips.

The most exotic animals I ever had in my entire life have been squirrel meat,terrapin lock stock and barrel,pig's brains and frogs legs.All of which I threw up after the rascally elders of our family informed me of what had just gone into my gut.

Coming to the gecko,most Malaysians nonchalantly label it a lizard by any other name.Two types of lizards are consumed locally.

One,the monitor lizard by sex crazed men looking for ANOTHER aphrodisiac so they have an excuse not to confine their sticks to just their wife,the other a dried specimen sold in chinese herbal shops.

The Tokay Gecko is a new fad that sparked a frenzy over the past two years.

When people discovered that a large one could make people in China cough up a hefty sum for it,part time lizard hunters with their families in tow,descended in droves from all over the country into the northern states whacking bushes,tree stumps scouring the countryside and semi jungles in the attempt to strike riches.

See,these animals could only be found on trees at secondary jungles and bush areas.

Last year,the situation reached such a critical point as they had been almost hunted to extinction,frightened to death,or shacked up in petshops or small time traders private homes .Even the puny ones were not spared.Caught to be fattened up awaiting the right weight,price and buyer.

Apparently they couldn't grow fast or fatten up quick enough for the greedy harbourers.

At this point I shall make things up to explain the ridiculous fix the animals have found themselves trapped in.

(Fiction)

Once upon a time,a lizard trader,started to scratch his head wondering how he could make his tokay grow bigger.As he sifted through his $68 per month iphone he found the inspiration he needed.As he looked at the before and after pictures of some local Malay artistes he thought this to himself "If they can make their face bloat and balloon up,why not go to one the many beauty houses and give my livestock a silicone injection just before delivering to unsuspecting one time sucktomers?"

(Back to reality)
The good thing is,the animal will die before it even can get eaten by whomever was desperate enough to resort to this 'cure'.

The bad thing is,the animal is condemned and will die of an overdose.Hello? Never hear any protest from those animal rights people?Why so quiet when you have no overseas sponsorship or donations?

Walla.....read on about the latest scam below

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New Straits Times

KOTA BARU: Dishonest animal traders have resorted to injecting silicone into geckos to enhance the size of the reptiles for bigger profits. Geckos, a lucrative business in Kelantan and the southern Thailand provinces, are being injected with silicone so that traders can put a much bigger price tag on the reptiles.

In Kelantan, rumours have spread like wildfire that the gecko is a cure for major diseases such as HIV/AIDS and this has caused prices for the reptile to shoot up.

A gecko trader who wanted to be known only as Azli said the silicone injections ploy had been uncovered only recently after a number of geckos bought from suppliers across the border died a few days after being purchased.
"I took a dead gecko to an animal expert who discovered that its head did not match the oversized body," said Azli, adding he had paid RM40,000 for the lizard.

Upon further checks, he said it was found that the gecko had been injected with silicone and salt powder to make it big before the sale.

"The expert also suspected that the gecko had died of an overdose of silicone," said Azli, 45, from Rantau Panjang.

He said he had bought the "fake" gecko after receiving photographs from a supplier via an email in November.

"I went to Sungai Golok to take delivery of the lizard and paid the high price as the gecko was big. A buyer was already waiting to buy it from me later. But, the gecko died a few days after I brought it back home," he said.

Azli said he believed there were 10 gecko suppliers across the border taking advantage of Malaysians' interest in the reptiles.

He said locals should not simply pay if they were offered large-sized geckos, especially if the price was unreasonably high.

Meanwhile, state Wildlife Department director Rahmat Topani confirmed that syndicates were involved in producing the unusually big geckos through artificial means.

"I have been told that some victims were cheated of up to RM100,000 by a syndicate, which targets rich buyers. As far as I know, the geckos have no medical benefit at all and it does not cure illnesses," he said.

A recent report had quoted a medical practitioner in the Philippines, Dr Ofelia Monzon as saying that the lizard -- which he had referred to as the tuko (Philippine gecko) -- had not been proven to cure serious ailments like cancer, HIV and AIDS.