Nepal arrests villagers for eating leopard

A group of 15 Nepalese villagers, including a 14-year-old child, have been arrested for eating a leopard in the belief that the meat could guard against gout disease, an official said Wednesday. The group said they found the dead spotted leopard by a temple near their village, 90 minutes' walk from the nearest road in the Mahabharat mountains in western Nepal, forestry officer Hari Paudel told AFP. "They were charged with eating the meat of an endangered animal. The law requires them to inform the district forest office when they find a dead or injured animal," he said. "One of the villagers had gout and he believed that he would be cured by eating the meat. The other villagers thought it would work as a preventative measure." Gout, a painful joint disease, is a form of arthritis caused when acid builds up in blood and causes inflammation. "We ate meat of the dead leopard we found near the village believing that it is a cure-all drug. We were totally unaware of its legal aspects," one of the accused was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post. The Nepalese spotted leopard is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as "near threatened". The villagers, who were arrested on Sunday, face fines of up to 10,000 rupees ($130) and two-year jail terms if convicted, Paudel said. Police raided their homes after a tip-off from an informant and found the animal's hide and bones. The accused were held in custody after failing to post bail in Pyuthan, a hill district 250 kilometres (155 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu. Most of Nepal's spotted leopards are found on the sub-equatorial plains of the southern Terai and in forested hill regions.