On November 22, 2021, Andy Lau told Red Star News that he had not left Wangcang County since he was sentenced to probation. Now, all three of his hounds are dead, one of them is arched by a wild boar, the other two are dead, and he has no more dogs. However, in order to have a harvest, the wild boar still had to drive it away, so he set up a shed in the crop field, lit a fire at night, and even set off firecrackers to drive the wild boar away. At the same time, he told reporters that the 20,000 yuan fine has been paid, and the 200,000 yuan ecological resource loss fee has also been paid in part.
For the verdict of this case, many netizens questioned it, believing that the punishment was too heavy; some people said that villagers could apply to the government for compensation when they suffered damage to crops from wild boars, and there was no need to kill wild boars. Why do villagers risk their lives to kill wild boars themselves?
Things have to start with wild boars, and this year's news of wild boar flooding is wave after wave, and it has not stopped. As a native of Bazhong, Sichuan, I never expected my hometown to be famous in the country, but it was because of the flood of 20,000 wild boars.
But in fact, wild boars are not only available in the past two years, as early as 10 years ago, there were wild boars in some suburbs of Sichuan stealing crops.
Andy Lau, a villager living in a mountain village in Wangcang County, Guangyuan City, usually grows potatoes and corn for a living. With the increasing number of wild boars, they often go to the fields to destroy crops, which brings great trouble to their family.
In September 2010, in order to hunt wild boars, Andy Lau placed a homemade simple wire hunting set on a local path. When I went to check it out a few days later, I found that I had hunted a "gray sheep" (impala). But the body was already decomposing and smelly, and Andy Lau used the machete he carried with him to cut off the impala's head (with horns) and take it home to prepare for the clothes hook, leaving the remaining rotting impala carcass in place.
The wild boar was not caught, and it was still destroying the crops, so Andy Lau specially raised 3 hounds to look at the nursing home and drive the wild boar. Who knew that in the three years from 2016 to 2018, the hounds killed 3 impala in succession. Andy Lau did not think so, and gave a cigarette reward, invited Liu mou from the same village to help carry the impala carcass.
The incident spread among the local villagers and was quickly noticed and investigated by the police. Andy Lau felt very wronged, he did not know that the original common "gray sheep" was actually a national second-level protected animal, and he did not mean to kill impala.
antelope
In the end, the honest farmer confessed his guilt.
At the end of 2020, the court sentenced Andy Lau to illegal hunting and killing of rare and endangered wild animals, sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for four years, and fined 20,000 yuan, while compensating 200,000 yuan for the loss of ecological resources caused by the criminal act.
After hearing about the villager's encounter, many netizens were indignant, thinking that the punishment was very unreasonable, and an honest farmer said that a fine of 200,000 yuan would be fined 200,000, is it impersonal? In fact, there are two points of contention, one is whether it is really necessary for villagers to punish impala by mistake; the other is where the 200,000 fines go, and how to compensate the villagers who suffered losses due to the wild boar disaster?
As far as this case is concerned, impala is a second-level protected animal of the state, and the criminal law also clearly stipulates: destroying wildlife resources and if the circumstances are serious, it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance or fine.
According to the Sichuan Nanshan Forestry Forensic Appraisal Center, the overall value of the impala hunted and killed is 50,000 yuan per animal. Andy Lau indirectly killed 4 impalas by setting traps and breeding hounds, so there was no problem with the results of the court's penalty. Moreover, as a constraint on all members of society, the law cannot lower the standard of punishment for personal reasons.
However, the reason for the court's judgment is difficult to convince, the Wangcang County People's Court believes that according to the cognitive ability of ordinary people, Andy Lau knows that there is a impala life here, and should also think that it may be hunted to impala, it should not set a hunting trap, and should not raise a dangerous animal such as a hunting dog.
So, we should think about why the relevant departments did not include them in wildlife sanctuaries or zoos earlier, knowing that there were state-protected animals in the lives of villagers.
The villagers used traps and hounds because wild boars destroyed crops and caused the villagers to suffer huge losses. From this point of view, should we still ask a rhetorical question, since we know that there are wild boars in the places where the villagers live, why do the hidden dangers of wild boars still exist after 10 years? If there had been no wild boar disaster in the area, the villagers would not have raised hunting dogs to kill impala.
In this regard, the Wangcang County Cyberspace Administration also responded that farmers who are harmed by wild boars can declare loss compensation to the insurance department of the town government according to relevant policies. This was originally a good thing, with government compensation, villagers do not have to risk robbing crops with wild boars, let alone kill impala by mistake.
But why, after so many years, I have only heard that some people have killed wild animals and sentenced them to prison sentences, but they have not heard that some villagers have received compensation for arching their crops with wild boars?
According to the 2018 latest version of the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, "where the protection of wild animals protected under this Law causes casualties, crop or other property losses, the local people's government shall compensate." Specific measures shall be formulated by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. "The central government shall subsidize the relevant local people's governments in adopting measures to prevent and control the harm caused by wildlife under key national protection and the funds required for compensation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state."
The regulations state that the authorities have responsibilities and obligations, and that there are funds available to help villagers mitigate the losses caused by wild boars. So why hasn't it been implemented?
The first is that this compensation method is very difficult to operate in practice.
The loss of rural crops is difficult to quantify, today the sparrows come to eat a little, tomorrow the wild boars come to arch a piece, in the morning a flock of hares, in the evening a group of wild boars, these losses can not be counted by public officials. Generally speaking, only tens or hundreds of acres of land that have suffered huge losses will receive sufficient attention. And the losses of these east and west pieces cannot be counted, and the villagers themselves think that they are unlucky.
In addition, relevant government departments lack relevant policy publicity. Many farmers are accustomed to silently bearing the loss of "relying on the sky to eat", and usually work in the fields, without time or way to understand these policies. So few people know about these remedies.
Moreover, the procedures for government departments to handle compensation are very cumbersome, and the losses suffered also need to be collected in time, and the implementation measures clearly state that the relevant person in charge should complete the evidence collection within 2 days, but it may be delayed.
After confirming that the damage was caused by the wild animals, the farmer had to fill out a bunch of application forms and submit them for review. It will take about three or five months to get the compensation.
In the past, the villagers could barely cope with some wild boars on their own, but when they faced a group of wild boars or large wild boars, they could only consider themselves unlucky. If you run a wild boar, if it doesn't run, you have to run. Wild boars weighing 300 pounds cannot be beaten by ordinary tigers, let alone people with wooden sticks.
Now, because of the country's efforts to protect wild animals, the number of some wild animals has increased significantly. At the same time, some wild animal populations with strong reproductive capacity and destructive nature have seriously endangered crop growth in some mountainous areas, of which wild boars are a typical example.
However, after hearing that some people had caused a lawsuit for killing wild boars, many farmers helplessly said: "I don't dare to fight, I can't prevent it, and I can't help but watch my crops being ruined by wild boars." "Even a lot of people don't dare to farm anymore."
This year, many provinces in China have seen the phenomenon of wild boar flooding and stealing crops, which has caused huge losses to farmers. Government departments should improve and implement the compensation method for the harm caused by wild animals, accelerate the solution of the problem of wild boar flooding, and provide a safer and more secure environment for farmers' production and life.