Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the prominent problem of wild animal eating, and the huge hidden dangers brought to public health and safety have aroused widespread concern in the society. Public security, forestry, and market supervision departments across the country have launched relevant special operations to combat illegal hunting, trafficking, and consumption of wild animals across the chain, with significant results. Law enforcement agencies have found in the process of cracking down on illegal wildlife-related crimes that problems such as huge game consumer groups, surprising profits in poaching, and high identification costs have become important reasons for the black interest chain of poaching wildlife to operate underground.
Recently, the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the "Decision on Comprehensive Ban on Illegal Wildlife Trading, Elimination of Wild Habits of Wild Animals, and Effective Protection of People's Health and Safety" (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), It is explicitly and completely prohibited to eat wild animals. Then, is it called the strictest "fasting" and "decision" in history, can it completely cut off the dirty black hands of illegal poaching, and control the "blood basin mouth" of overeating game?
Outbreak of wild animals still rampant
There is ample evidence that wildlife is closely related to the outbreak and the spread of the virus. Recently, many countries have launched actions to combat illegal wildlife crimes. From the number of people arrested and the number of wildlife captured, wildlife illegal crimes still exist under high pressure.
The bazaars in cities are often the last link on the black chain of illegal wildlife trafficking. On January 29, the Tongzhou District Market Supervision Bureau of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, found a fish stall operator operating under the name Qiu was killing snakes in the market in his jurisdiction.
Confirmed by professionals, Qiu Mou slaughtered and sold was the national second-level protected animal king Jin snake. Staff searched the scene and found 3 Wang Jinshe, a total of 4.29 kg. Because Qiu Mou could not provide the relevant certificates of the origin, quarantine and purchase of these Wang Jinshe. According to the relevant regulations of the Wildlife Protection Law and other related regulations, the Market Supervision Bureau of Tongzhou District, Nantong City has adopted measures to seal, control and isolate the business premises, and transferred the case to public security for handling.
In recent special operations, many cases of wild animals that have not entered the public circulation area and were traded privately by poachers and buyers have also been seized. On the afternoon of February 2, police officers Cong Yang and Zhang Xuefeng from the Xiaochengzi Police Station of the Public Security Bureau of Kangping County, Shenyang City, found two suspicious signs in the field during patrol. One of them carried a large bag in his hand. The police suspected that the two men were running away and leaving the bags in place when the two were conducting a wildlife trade and were preparing to go for interrogation.
The police came forward to check and found that the bag contained 6 national second-protected animal ring-necked pheasants. Subsequently, the police will keep Renmou at the scene back to the police station. According to his account, the escaped man was Liu Moumou, and the two had previously agreed to trade pheasants in the wild. Since then Liu Moumou has surrendered to the police station.
"Economic Reference" reporter found in an interview that, in addition to selling to individuals privately, some restaurants, for short-term economic benefits, will also actively contact poachers to help them sell their stolen goods. On the evening of February 4, law enforcement officers of a market supervision bureau in an eastern province launched a night investigation and saw a restaurant located at the junction of urban and rural areas still on.
"At that time, the epidemic was in the critical period of prevention and control, and no gathering was allowed in the whole area. We were afraid that someone would gather for a meal, so we went forward to check it, but the operator refused to cooperate with the inspection." The law enforcement officer handling the case introduced.
The joint law enforcement team immediately inspected the restaurant. The forestry department saw a dish suspected to be a bird in the refrigerator. After questioning the chef, it was found that there was a very hidden cold storage next to the restaurant. Law enforcement officers seized more than 20 frozen products in the cold storage on the spot, and preliminarily judged that they were national second-level protected animal geese.
According to statistics from the market supervision department of Jiangsu Province, since the outbreak, the province has eliminated a total of 791 offline business entities involved in wildlife trading, with a transaction value of more than 190 million yuan and 148 online stores in the province that involve wildlife trading online. A small amount of illegal breeding, private capture, and trading of wild animals.
Compared with the eastern coastal provinces, the western provinces have more forests and mountains, and the situation of cracking down on wildlife crime is also severe. In only 11 days from January 23 to February 2, the Sichuan Forestry Public Security Organs inspected 9587 agricultural (aquatic) product trade markets, supermarkets, catering establishments, and wild animal domestication and breeding sites, and found 5 wild wildlife-related incidents. In the criminal case of animal crime, 13 suspects were arrested.
From January 24 to February 2 in Yunnan Province, adjacent to Sichuan, 14 criminal cases were filed by the forest public security organs, 10 suspects were arrested, and 39 forest administrative cases were investigated.
Song Keming, the person in charge of the Green Future Environmental Protection Association, went to many places to investigate wildlife trafficking and consumption. He said that current game consumption is more common in folks, including common wild animals such as hares, wild boars, pheasants, and musk, as well as protected animals such as pangolins and owls.
Increasing protection costs and high profits spawn poaching gangs
In the face of the epidemic, wildlife trade was banned in various parts of the country in a timely manner, and the wildlife market was closed. However, the source of illegal poaching of wild animals has not been fundamentally curbed. Why are so many people taking risks under pressure?
Some animal protection personnel and grassroots cadres believe that the huge consumer groups of wild game and the amazing profits of poaching are the root causes of the repeated prohibition of wild animal poaching crimes. At the same time, the loose management of poaching tools, the technicalization of poaching methods, and the high-profit-induced professionalization of poachers have also made the protection of wildlife protection departments more expensive and more difficult.
How big is the wildlife consumer group? Yang Jie, the founder of the public anti-poaching squad in 2019, and many volunteers collected information on illegal wild hunting, breeding, and trading of wild animals reported on Weibo and WeChat, which are mainly focused on illegal hunting by civilians There are as many as 1,217 messages for offline transactions, mainly markets, restaurants, and bird and flower markets.
According to media reports, a previous survey by the China Wildlife Conservation Association found that in 21 large and medium-sized cities across the country, more than 50% of restaurants operate wildlife dishes, 46.2% of urban residents have eaten wildlife, and 2.7% of residents often Eat "game".
Cao Jian, deputy chief prosecutor of the People's Procuratorate of Jing'an District, Shanghai, said that edible wild animals are not a small consumer group, driving a large catch, transport, sale, and processing industry chain. Starting from the end of the consumption chain.
How profitable are poachers selling wild animals? "The purchase price of a bear can sometimes reach more than 10,000 yuan. Although the unit price of birds is not high, but because of the huge number, some 'intermediaries' also fertilize the caught birds and sell them. The profit can reach the farming time. Ten times more. "A ranger who has been engaged in wildlife protection for many years told reporters.
Sun Quanhui, a scientist at the World Animal Protection Association, said that the huge profits of poachers selling wild animals is like "you can pick up money when you bend over when you walk." He said that in some game restaurants, rare wild birds sell for thousands of yuan, but the cost of capturing and poisoning is extremely low. "Just mix the food and poison in a certain proportion in the wildlife habitat and scatter, and go to the dead body after a while."
Obviously, to stop illegal poaching of wild animals, it is vital to start with restricting the tools of crime. "Economic Reference" reporter interview found that the current control of wildlife capture tools still have loopholes.
Although laws and regulations have explicitly banned poaching tools, most of them only include shotguns and poisons, and it is not clear whether the production and sale of capture nets is legal. There are even a lot of bird netting workshops in some places. The relevant person in charge of the "Let migratory birds fly" project said: "On the relevant interest chain, if only use is prohibited but not production, how can we enforce law vigorously?"
At the same time, the growing e-commerce network has also made it easier for many illegal poachers to purchase a variety of beast-catching and bird-hunting equipment. According to the investigators, some bird hunters will buy bird calling machines online, which can mimic the tweets of birds to lure wild birds into the pre-arranged Tianluodi net.
Some poachers purchase materials such as batteries, inverters, and wires separately from the Internet, and make their own wild power grids that can shock wild animals for illegal poaching. Sha Xueren, who has been engaged in wildlife protection for many years, said that illegal poachers live in mountain areas all year round, and are very familiar with the terrain and animal tracks. The locations of crimes are also mostly chosen in inaccessible places, which brings great difficulties to law enforcement agencies. In addition, wildlife-related crimes are often committed by gangs, with clear division of labor, some responsible for leading the way, some for making hunting and hunting tools, and some for dissecting and marketing. This also brings many difficulties to the law enforcement department's crackdown.
The development of e-commerce not only makes it easier for poachers to purchase hunting tools, but in the process of selling stolen goods, online channels have also become the choice of more and more criminals. According to the Law Enforcement and Inspection Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Market Supervision Administration, they have combined the case and case-handling data analysis, and have urged the removal of the sale information and the removal of the sale information on the Internet involving wildlife and related product transaction information.
"Full fasting" specimens and governance details still need to be improved
On February 24, in order to comprehensively ban and punish illegal wildlife trading activities, abolish the habit of eating wild animals, maintain biosecurity and ecological security, effectively prevent major public health risks, effectively protect the lives and health of the people, and strengthen ecological civilization Construction and promotion of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted and passed the "Decision on Comprehensively Banning the Trade in Illegal Wildlife, Eliminating the Bad Habits of Wild Animals, and Effectively Safeguarding People's Health .
The "Decision" first clarified that, where the "Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" and other relevant laws prohibit hunting, trading, transportation, and consumption of wild animals, they must be strictly prohibited. Violations of the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall be punished on the basis of existing laws.
"Aggravated punishment" can be said to have hit the "seven inches" of illegal poachers. In the case of selling Wang Jinshe in Tongzhou District, the person involved in the case Qiu was dealt with by the Public Security Bureau for administrative detention for 3 days. Many wildlife conservationists responded that administrative detention penalties in just a few days and as many as ten days were not enough to deter the illegal activities of poaching and trafficking in wild animals compared with the high black profits generated by poaching wild animals.
At the same time, many law enforcement officials reported to the reporter of the Economic Reference News that the phenomenon of "hanging sheep's heads and selling dog meat" exists in some wild animal farms. Because sellers and eaters know that the transactions are illegal, they are relatively hidden, such as wild geese and black waterbirds. The menu may contain ducks.
Song Keming said that China has clear regulations on domestication and reproduction of wild animals, and needs to obtain various licenses for breeding, operation, and transportation. But in fact, many breeding farms are out of range breeding, and some purchase wild animals caught in the wild. "If you see dead or physically disabled wildlife on the market, they are mostly captured from the wild."
However, it is obviously not rigorous enough to judge whether an animal is wild or farmed based on whether it is dead or not. "Economic Reference" reporter found in the interview that the high cost of identification is also an important reason that makes it difficult to place penalties. Many wildlife conservationists report that in order to determine illegal wildlife trafficking, the price of identifying a wild animal would require thousands of dollars. Some forestry departments and forest police are discouraged by judicial appraisal work. In the end, market supervision departments often punish and seize on the grounds of inadequate licenses or in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law in order to prevent diseases.
This difficult problem in law enforcement will be fundamentally resolved after the adoption of the Decision. The "Decision" clearly states that it is strictly forbidden to consume "terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value" as well as other terrestrial wildlife, including artificially-bred terrestrial wildlife. It is forbidden to hunt, trade and transport terrestrial wild animals that grow and reproduce naturally in the wild for the purpose of food.
The market supervision department of Tongzhou District of Nantong City said that the strict investigation of illegal wildlife trade is based on government orders during the epidemic prevention period. After the NPC Standing Committee ’s comprehensive fasting decision was issued, law enforcement at the grassroots level will be available. At the same time, the implementation of the "including terrestrial wild animals with artificial breeding and artificial breeding" clause will also solve the problem of law enforcement identification due to whether wild animals can breed to a certain extent, thereby improving the efficiency of front-line law enforcement.
A number of people in the animal protection industry told reporters that the promulgation of the "Decision" clearly defined "full fasting" at the legal level. From the current point of view, it is a cure for both symptoms and root causes. At the same time, there are some details in the future law enforcement process. requires attention.
The first is to clarify the responsibilities among law enforcement subjects. The "Regulations on the Protection of Wild Animals of Jiangsu Province" clearly define the principles of "who finds and supervises" and "who first file a case and investigate." The current law enforcement body of the "Wildlife Protection Law" involves forestry, agriculture, public security, markets, customs and other Departments are prone to ambiguous responsibilities and mutual shirk. It is urgent to clarify the scope of work responsibilities between various departments, and it is recommended to distinguish the department's supervision responsibilities according to whether there is a business license and the area where the illegal acts occur, so as to avoid slapstick.
The second is to improve the coordination mechanism of relevant departments. Under the current legal framework, it is recommended that wildlife supervision departments with permission at all levels implement relevant law enforcement agencies at the same level with regard to data such as licenses of relevant business entities in the circulation field, operators, catering units, etc., as well as sales of breeding links. Copy report system. At the same time, strengthen inter-departmental collaboration, strengthen professional training, strengthen law enforcement collaboration, and form a joint regulatory effort.
The third is to establish a "white list" system to clearly and scientifically define the scope of wildlife protection. At present, China has 408 national key protected animals, nearly one thousand provincial key protected animals, 1,438 "three" protected animals, and 991 animals not on any protected list. The Law Enforcement and Inspection Bureau of the Market Supervision Administration of Jiangsu Province has suggested that different levels of protection should follow different laws and regulations. According to the actual situation, the use scope of wild animals that can be raised is further strictly limited, and the management of the list is implemented, and the off-list is prohibited. (Reporter Zhang Yifei Zheng Sheng Zhulan Tianming)