Giant pandas have lived on Earth for at least 8 million years, but with the destruction of the natural environment by humans and the deterioration of natural conditions, the number of pandas has plummeted. In order to protect the giant pandas, which are known as "national treasures", most of today's pandas are artificially farmed and gradually released after the pandas have basic survival capabilities. By January 2021, the wild population of giant pandas in China has increased to 1,864. As a rare animal, the panda is an endemic animal to China and currently inhabits the mountainous regions of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, China.
Of course, giant pandas do not only appear in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, Yunnan has bred a wealth of biological species due to its diverse climate and complex terrain. Just one Yunnan province, its animal species account for more than half of the country's species, so traces of giant pandas have also been found in Yunnan. However, the discovery was too late, and the giant panda in Yunnan had already been killed by local residents and put in the market for sale, until it was reported, and the case of killing and trafficking in state-protected animals was not known.
Wang Wenlin has been a farmer for generations and lives in a small village in Pu'er Town, Yanjin County, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province. In order to feed a large family, he also raised a herd of cattle and sheep as an additional income for the family. The family lived a tight and stable life. But on the morning of December 3, 2014, Wang Wenlin found that one of his sheep pens had died. This made Wang Wenlin a little angry, originally relying on these sheep to subsidize the family, and now suddenly died, Wang Wenlin was a little unwilling.
But in order to prevent the tragedy of the dead sheep from happening to him, he strengthened the sheep pen that afternoon, and set many traps around the sheep pen by the way. Because Wang Wenlin had lived here for many years and had never heard of any traces of large beasts, he only guessed that the weasels might have found his home at night, so the traps set were only to prevent the weasels from foraging in the sheepfold again.
However, the next morning, the scene in front of him was unbelievable, the trap was not only completely destroyed, but also two sheep died in the sheepfold. Wang Wenlin understood that he must have met a big guy. So he immediately called his brother Wang Wencai for help, and the two of them were ready to catch this big guy together.
That night, the two men guarded the sheepfold, waiting for the "murderer" to throw himself into the net. Just as the two men were falling asleep, there was a noise outside the sheepfold. Wang Wenlin immediately stared intently at the big guy in the distance who tried to climb into his sheepfold again, and he knew that the time for him to "take revenge" had finally come.
With a "boom", Wang Wenlin hit the big guy in the stomach with a gun. The big guy who was about to climb into the sheepfold was frightened, and immediately turned around and prepared to flee, Wang Wenlin immediately made up the second and third shots...
It wasn't until it was confirmed that the big guy had run out of breath that Wang Wenlin and his brother stopped this one-sided plunder. After determining that there was no safety hazard, Wang Wenlin and Wang Wencai walked in to take a look and found that it was actually a giant panda! Both people know that pandas are national first-level protected animals and cannot be killed at will, and the two people are panicked in their hearts, and they never thought that they could meet giant pandas in Yunnan.
After the panic, the brothers were afraid of being judged by the law, so they decided to hide the fact of their crime: the two people reasonably carried the huge giant panda home, peeled the skin of the panda, and looked at the remaining 35 kilograms of panda meat.
The younger brother proposed that he simply sell the panda meat without stopping, so that no one could find out about it. Wang Wenlin really couldn't think of a better way, plus he had already lost three sheep, and he couldn't lose it in vain. So the two brothers called it bear meat, found some ways to trade privately, and soon sold the panda meat for 4800.
Wang Wenlin, who thought that after disposing of the panda meat, as long as he and his brother did not talk about outsiders, no one would ever know about this matter. However, by chance, other villagers saw the panda skin hidden in Wang Wenlin's home. Shocked, the villagers immediately reported the incident to the local police station. After receiving the alarm call, the police immediately went out to investigate the matter.
After the investigation results proved that the skin hidden in Wang Wenlin's home was confirmed to be the skin of the panda, the police quickly arrested Wang Wenlin and Wang Wencai, two brothers.
According to article 341 of the Criminal Law, whoever illegally hunts or kills rare or endangered wild animals under key national protection, or illegally acquires, transports or sells rare or endangered wild animals under key national protection and their products, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are particularly serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years and shall also be fined or have his property confiscated.
In this case, because the two brothers of Wang Wenlin illegally hunted and killed the giant panda, a key protected animal of the state, and sold the hunted giant panda privately for money transactions, and did not turn themselves in in time after committing the crime, the social impact was bad, and the crime of illegally killing rare and endangered wild animals was particularly serious. The court sentenced Wang Wenlin to 13 years in prison and fined him 10,000 yuan; and Sentenced Wang Wencai to 11 years in prison, with a fine of 10,000 yuan.
Some people may wonder, isn't human life more precious than animals? There is certainly no problem with this perception. The famous legal worker Luo Xiang once gave such an example: if people are extremely hungry or their lives are threatened, it is not illegal to kill animals, after all, they are national protected animals - pandas. However, Wang Wenlin plundered and killed the giant panda after losing three sheep, and not only did not turn himself in in time afterwards, but privately sold panda meat, which was bound to be severely punished by the law, and the court's judgment was the best punishment for their behavior.
The giant panda found in Yunnan for the first time has not yet had time to enter people's field of vision, and it is a pity that it has left in this way. At the same time, Wang Wenlin's case also warns us that we must not do things arbitrarily, otherwise it will cause irreparable points.