The import giraffes under Customs control

On the morning of August 21, when a charter plane carrying 66 giraffes from South Africa arrived at Gaoqi International Airport of Xiamen City, Customs officers immediately conducted inspection and release of those giraffes at the parking apron, facilitating Xiamen’s first import of live giraffes from South Africa.

In order to ensure the smooth clearance, Xiamen Customs made a special work program, including processing advance declaration of the import giraffes and exercising field control at the airport apron. Seeing recent epidemic of African swine fever, the Customs took strict quarantine measures over those giraffes, making thorough sterilization on their loading and unloading sites, utensils, transport vehicles and the plane, etc.   

After the release, the 66 giraffes were all transported into the Pingtan island of Fuzhou City for 45 days of quarantine. In future, they will be kept for breeding in the zoos in China.