Beautiful Xiangxi, the mountains are densely forested
It is a national second-class wild protected animal
A thrush perched paradise
Recent
This "bird singer"
But it was hunted and sold by some lawbreakers
Become a "caged bird"
Even lost his life
……
On May 22, after the Chongchuan District Procuratorate of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province initiated a public prosecution, the court publicly pronounced a verdict on a case of endangering precious and endangered wild animals, sentencing the defendant Jia to five years and six months in prison and fining him 100,000 yuan respectively for the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals; Liang was sentenced to three years and three months in prison and fined 30,000 yuan; The defendants were sentenced to one year and nine months' imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 yuan each.
Backers make "bird" money
Jia, 25, lives in Baojing County, Hunan Province, where mountains and peaks stretch and forests stretch, and the unique natural environment provides good breeding conditions for thrushes. Jia, who lives in the mountains, has liked to catch birds and play with birds since he was a child, and occasionally posted a few videos about thrush birds on the Internet, which immediately attracted many onlookers, and some people contacted him privately to buy birds. Jia did not expect that the thrush birds that could be seen everywhere in front of the mountain were so valuable, and a thrush bird with good taste could be sold for two or three thousand yuan, and he started to sell thrush birds to make a fortune.
In July 2021, Jia set up a bird trap and set up a bird net on the mountain near his home, and successively caught more than 20 thrush birds. But his own hunting was too tiring and too small, so he decided to collect birds elsewhere. Later, Jia met Fu and other birdcatchers in the Xiangxi region and began to buy thrushes from them in large quantities.
From October 2022, Fu sold the thrushes he hunted to Jia for 40 yuan each. According to Fu's account, everyone in his circle knows that the thrush is a national second-class wild protected animal.
With a stable "supply of goods", Jia began to plan how to "ship". Jia knew that postal express did not allow sending live animals, so he found Li, a self-employed person at a courier station in Guzhang County. Because Jia often sent farm native products to him, Li, who couldn't erase his face, thought that he could take orders and make money, so he agreed to help Jia send thrushes.
In order to attract more buyers, Jia used a number of short video platforms to display and publicize, and introduced the thrush number for sale in WeChat moments. Among the many buyers, there are many bird farmers from Nantong, Jiangsu. Liang from Shandong is Jia's "big buyer", Liang knows that thrushes are a "sought-after item" in the flower and bird market, and bought more than 200 from Jia somewhere.
In September 2022, the Nantong public security organ discovered during its work that a flower and bird market owner bought thrush birds online, and found that the seller was Jia. On November 16, the public security organs seized 58 and 46 thrushes from Jia's home and in the trunk of the car, all of which were identified as thrushes of the noisy thrush family, which are national second-class protected wild animals. At this point, with Jia as the center, a precious wild animal trading chain around the hunting, acquisition, sale and transportation of thrush has gradually become clear. From November 2022 to February 2023, the public security organs arrested a total of 27 criminal suspects, and 12 criminal suspects received telephone notifications from the public security organs to report the case.
Visit the place where the crime occurred
Due to the seriousness of the case and the novel type of case, the public security organ invited the Chongchuan District Procuratorate of Nantong City to intervene in advance. The court quickly set up a special case team and guided the public security organs to promptly fix the electronic evidence of the persons involved in the case, laying the foundation for the subsequent full-chain crackdown on crime.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the case handling team believed that the behavior of Jia and others was not only suspected of criminal violations, but also endangered biodiversity and harmed the public interest, and initially established the direction of "criminal crackdown + ecological restoration".
The procurator asked Jia's relatives about the case.
On December 23, 2022 and March 2 this year, Jia, Fu, Liang and Li were arrested by the Chongchuan District Procuratorate on suspicion of endangering precious and endangered wild animals. It was preliminarily found that from July 2021 to November 2022, Jia obtained more than 1,200 thrushes by capturing them himself and acquiring them from others, sold them in WeChat groups and moments of friends, and sold them to Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu by express mail, trucks and other methods.
How to objectively and fairly assess the amount involved, legal significance and social value of this case? At the stage of reviewing the prosecution, the procuratorate decided to conduct field investigations and studies and draw scientific conclusions.
From March 19 to 24, members of the case-handling team, together with investigators from public security organs and forestry experts, visited Baojing County, Hunan Province, where the crime occurred, to conduct a visit.
In early April, based on the facts of the case and the information learned from the investigation, the Chongchuan District Procuratorate entrusted the Hunan Provincial Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center to evaluate the impact of the illegal hunting, trading and transportation of thrushes on the ecological environment, restoration plans and costs. The Hunan Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center issued a written assessment opinion, and each thrush was worth 5,000 yuan. After accounting, the value of the thrush involved in the case totaled more than 6 million yuan.
Based on this, the court determined the public welfare damage compensation plan, solicited ecological restoration opinions, and signed an ecological damage compensation agreement with Jia and others (including those handling the other case). Up to now, the infringers have paid a total of more than 400,000 yuan in ecological restoration funds and other fees. Up to now, the thrush involved in the case has been entrusted by the public security organ to the local wildlife rescue center to shelter, rescue and release.
On May 8, the Chongchuan District Procuratorate prosecuted Jia and others on suspicion of endangering precious and endangered wild animals.
To love birds is to protect biodiversity
On May 22, on the International Day for Biological Diversity, the case of Jia and others endangering precious and endangered wild animals was heard. Because the case involved professionalism, the court notified the evaluator to appear in court, and the procuratorate applied for an expert assistant to appear in court to give a professional explanation.
In court, Jia's defenders questioned the method used by the thrush forensic evaluation. The evaluators explained and explained this one by one.
"Our country is very big, there are no wild thrushes in Nantong, but it is common in Xiangxi. In my opinion, the damage caused by Jia to the ecological environment is not great. Jia's defender believes that Jia should be treated lightly.
What is the impact of hunting, acquiring, transporting and selling thrushes on thrush species and ecological environment? Liu Changjing, associate professor of Nanjing Forest Police College, an expert assistant, elaborated in court: a large number of poaching and poaching during the breeding season of thrush will cause great harm to the breeding of thrush populations; Poaching in the wild habitat of thrushes is likely to disrupt the habitat and harm other birds; Thrush is in the food chain and food web, and the lack of quantity will cause negative feedback to the ecosystem and affect the ecosystem service function.
When issuing the prosecuting opinion, the prosecutor explained the species, quantity, and value determination of the thrush involved in the case, and at the same time comprehensively assessed the social harmfulness from the behavioral means, the degree of damage to wildlife resources, the degree of awareness of wild animals, etc., combined with the circumstances of voluntary surrender, confession, admission of guilt and punishment of the four defendants, and put forward sentencing recommendations.
"Today marks the 30th International Day for Biological Diversity. On such a special day, I hope that the four defendants will have a deeper understanding of the damage to biodiversity caused by their actions, and in the future, they will be able to respect nature, protect wild animals, and not endanger precious and endangered wild animals for their own selfish interests. The prosecutor pointed out that through the public trial of this case, the general public, especially animal lovers, can understand the importance and urgency of protecting wild animals, know the national protection policy on wild animals, awaken the awareness of the whole society on the protection of biodiversity, and promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
After trial, the court adopted all the procuratorial organs' opinions on charges and sentencing recommendations, and finally pronounced the verdict in court. It is understood that according to the seriousness of the crime and the degree of harm to society, the procuratorial organ will soon prosecute other persons involved in the case or deal with it accordingly.
(Source: Procuratorial Daily Der Spiegel Weekly Author: Ge Liangliang, Weekend Wang Yingli)