A man from Ontario has been fined $15,000 for attempting to smuggle 4,788 live, medicinal leeches into Canada.
Ippolit Bodounov, who was flying from Russia to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, was arrested when a sniffer dog detected the leeches in a large reusable grocery bag he was carrying.
“This is our first large-scale illegal leech import,” Gerry Brunet, operations manager of the Environment and Climate Change Canada was quoted in a CBC News report as saying, adding that the usual smuggling case the ministry records involve reptiles, turtles, tortoises and snakes.
The leeches were identified as hirudo verbana, a threatened medicinal leech caught in the wild.
People have been harvesting the breed for medicinal purposes since medieval times to use for several purposes even if there is no scientific proof that it works.
However, the use of leeches in medicine has so far been proven to stimulate blood flow in reattached fingers and toes, as well as deter strokes.
Medicinal leeches can sell for between $8 and $20 each. (Photo: Toronto Sun)
