Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Gay Veteran Group Banned From Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade

A group for gay veterans that has walked in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade for the past two years has been prohibited from participating this year by the organizers. The group, called OutVets, said it was banned from the parade because members were planning to carry a rainbow banner. An attorney who fought against the group’s participation said, “the symbols and activities associated with that community do not belong in the parade.”

The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which organizes the parade, faced immediate backlash and the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, said he would not walk in the parade unless OutVets were allowed back in. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker also said he wouldn’t participate, and several companies said they would drop their sponsorships. Last night, the organizers announced that they are holding an emergency meeting today to discuss the matter.

So they can die for you but not march with you on St Patrick’s Day? These people sound wonderful.https://t.co/WdybZdY6B7

— Christian Siriano (@CSiriano) March 9, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: March 10, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

An undercover BBC sting has exposed a secret network of illegal baby chimpanzee traders, based in the Ivory Coast. Reporters posed as potential buyers for a year-long BBC News investigation, exposing the illegal ring that had evaded police for years.

Capturing and selling baby apes is a highly profitable trade, as the animals are popular pets in the Gulf States, Southeast Asia, and China. For years, videos of the notorious “blue room” filled with captive baby chimps for sale circulated, but no one knew exactly where the operation’s headquarters were.

Buying a baby chimpanzee comes at a cost of at least $12,500. Capturing infant chimps normally requires the killing of the parents and other full-grown apes in the family so they won’t intervene. In order to kidnap one live baby, as many as ten adults are often slaughtered. This has an enormous impact on the chimpanzee population, as illegal poaching of the endangered species is a big problem in this part of the world.

BBC News reveals shocking trade in baby chimps

*map shows extent of illegal great apes trafficking routes https://t.co/cVcwyRZRBi pic.twitter.com/hpeUMSsODH

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 31, 2017

After they are kidnapped, the baby chimpanzees are shipped–often in hidden crates behind other animals–to rich buyers in other parts of the world. The Cites agreement (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ) restricts international trade of endangered animals, and chimps are under its highest level of protection. They can only be exported if they have been bred in captivity, and any organizations exporting or importing them need to be registered with Cites.

Despite this, some smugglers are able to circumvent these controls by easily purchasing fake trade permits in West Africa. Another common tactic is to get a permit for less endangered animals and simply hide the chimps among them.

Seized from the jungle, orphaned, sold to smugglers, then rescued after a BBC investigation – meet Nemley junior on #BBCNewsTen tonight pic.twitter.com/6op0wzOLK9

— David Shukman (@davidshukmanbbc) January 30, 2017

Once the infant chimps are no longer cute babies, they are often abandoned, locked up, or even killed. Swiss wildlife activist Karl Amman described the practice as a “kind of slavery.”

“They still have 90% of their life ahead of them,” Amman said. “They get locked in some cage and maybe even killed in some cases because they have outlived their useful pet stage.That for me is just impossible to accept.”

The BBC reporters exposed the chimpanzee trafficking ring by building relationships with the smugglers and pretending to represent wealthy clients, leading to the rescue of a one-year-old chimp.

However, experts have found that most baby chimps are traumatized for life after seeing their parents killed. Dan Bucknall, of the wildlife charity Tusk, stated that the recovery could be “very difficult with such clever sentient animals.” But he added that they are also resilient: “In the right hands, with good carers, and with constant attention, they can do OK and the prospects are good.”

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Baby Chimpanzee Trafficking Network Discovered in West Africa appeared first on Law Street.

At first, Nigerian officials didn’t notice anything unusual about the bags of rice. But on a closer inspection, they could detect a faint chemical smell, and when the “rice” was boiled, it was way too sticky to be normal rice. It turned out to be plastic rice. The customs chief in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, Haruna Mamudu, said that the fake rice was intended to be sold on the city’s holiday markets.  “Only God knows what would have happened” if people ate it, he said.

Given that it was difficult enough for customs officials to recognize that the rice was fake, they have issued a warning for people to not eat rice that seems suspicious. A sample of the fake food has been sent to laboratories to be examined. It wasn’t clear where the bags that amounted to 2.5 tons had been shipped from, but since similar rice made from plastic pellets was seized in China last year, officials suspect that’s where they came from. The country’s surging food prices and a ban on imported rice, in an effort to boost local production, could be contributing factors. A bag of 50 kilos of rice now sells for around $63, which is more than twice as much as the price in December of last year. Rice is the most common food staple in Nigeria.

Nigeria has confiscated 102 bags of “plastic rice” smuggled into the country https://t.co/gDvxy27sGW

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 21, 2016

The rice bags were marked “Best Tomato Rice,” and had no expiration date or manufacturing date printed on them. They were discovered in a store after a tip about a criminal plot to sell the fake rice to specific people in the city. One person has been arrested. According to Haruna Mamudu, the man made a helpful statement about the plot and said that he got the plastic rice from someone who wanted him to help distribute it. “Before now, I thought it was a rumour that the plastic rice is all over the country but with this seizure, I have been totally convinced that such rice exists,” Mamudu said.

Plastic rice is something of a media phenomenon, though it has many times been proven to be just a fake news story. Many stories have claimed that manufacturers mix real rice with plastic fake rice, or make “rice” out of potatoes and then add an industrial resin. According to Snopes these stories are unsubstantiated and false. But with these latest news from Nigeria, it seems like the urban legend may have given rise to a real story. BBC reporter Martin Patience was there and smelled the rice himself.

Whoever made this fake rice did an exceptionally good job–on first impression it would have fooled me. When I ran the grains through my fingers nothing felt out of the ordinary. But when I smelt a handful of the ‘rice’ there was a faint chemical odor. Customs officials say when they cooked up the rice it was too sticky–and it was then abundantly clear this was no ordinary batch.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post A Real Urban Legend? Plastic Rice Seized in Nigeria appeared first on Law Street.