At present, it is the spring ploughing season, and the "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter found that in some places, the Chinese toad, known as the "farmland guard", is openly sold in the vegetable market, and the daily sales of only one stall can reach hundreds of catties.
The Chinese toad, commonly known as the toad, is an expert at catching insects, and protecting the toad can not only save the cost of pesticides, but also avoid the pollution caused by pesticides. In accordance with the Wildlife Protection Law and the relevant regulations of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, it is forbidden to hunt and eat toads. However, at present, indiscriminate hunting and overeating have greatly reduced the toad population.
So, who is catching, selling, and eating toads, and how can these "farmland guards" be protected?
A stall owner can sell a few hundred catties a day
A few days ago, the reporter came to a township vegetable market at the junction of Zhejiang and Shanghai at 9 o'clock in the morning. Selling Chinese toads is as common as selling pork on this 200-metre-long street, and every few steps you walk will reveal a stall selling it publicly.
The reporter counted 8 stores that were open for business. In front of each stall is the same: there are two large plastic boxes, which contain live toads, the small one is 16 yuan a catty, and the large one is 18 yuan a catty, and many customers buy with clips.
"Do you braise it or do you make salt and pepper? There are still a lot of goods in the store, so you can take them out if you want them. A middle-aged female stall owner at a medium-sized stall said.
The vendors were busy slaughtering the toad meat after skinning and decapitating the head to customers, and next to each stall there was a pot of toad heads and a pot of toad skins.
The reporter noticed that individual customers are mainly middle-aged and elderly. "We eat it often, buy it and cook it ourselves, it's stronger than the meat of bullfrogs. A customer who made a purchase on the spot said.
Several stall owners said that it was the peak season for toads to be listed, and they started selling them early in the morning. Individual customers plus some farmhouse restaurants, it is not a problem to sell a few hundred catties a day.
According to the stall owner who was investigated by the law enforcement department, when the business is good, it can sell more than 1,000 catties a day, and there are generally 3 to 5 toads per catty.
"This vegetable market is not the only one that openly sells slaughtered Chinese toads. Some places in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta have the habit of eating Chinese toads. This kind of illegal and criminal behavior has been investigated repeatedly, and there is a resurgence trend in the past two years. The prosecutor who is handling the case related to the hunting of the Chinese toad introduced.
The reporter found that some bloggers recently posted videos of edible toads on social platforms. For example, in a video of a store visit, "toad chicken" is the store's signature dish, and the blogger eats the toad meat while saying that it tastes delicious. In another cooking video, the blogger used nearly 10 live toads to record the whole process from slaughter to food and served to the table.
Large-scale hunting is forbidden
Why are Chinese toads sold and slaughtered in some places, and where do these Chinese toads come from?
During the unannounced visit, the stall owners all said that they were only selling goods, and some upstream bosses delivered the goods. As for where the toads in the upstream came from, some stall owners cautiously said: "The goods we buy are farmed and have certificates." There are also stall owners who bluntly said: "The wild ones we sell taste better." ”
"The so-called certificate refers to the license of the Chinese toad farm in Sichuan, Shandong and other places, and the upstream boss will give us a copy to deal with the inspection. The stall owner who was investigated by the law enforcement department said, "The breeding license is a disguise, and it is difficult for the farm to be verified in other provinces. ”
Law enforcement officials said that some of the so-called farms do not actually carry out farming, and some farms do not produce much, mainly buying wild toads that are hunted illegally.
Law enforcement agencies combed through relevant cases and said that the Chinese toad had been hunted on a large scale for a long time. In recent years, most of the Chinese toads seized have come from Sichuan, Shandong, Anhui and other places, and the hunting methods are simple and crude. "It's wearing a headlamp, a flashlight, and clipping. There are dozens of people in a village, and one person can catch dozens of catties a day. ”
After these captured toads were collected in a unified manner, they were sold to the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and other places, and flowed to the table. All links have close exchanges, involving multiple regions, and have formed a long-term and stable criminal network of hunting, purchasing, transporting, processing, and selling.
This is also confirmed by the recent public verdict in the case. In March this year, the Yunlian County People's Court in Sichuan Province publicly pronounced a verdict in an illegal hunting case: The two defendants were hunting at night in a ditch and barren slope near a village in Yunnan Province, and were seized when they wanted to send the 983 toads they had hunted to a certain city in Sichuan for sale; they were sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence and 10 months in prison with a one-year and six-month suspended sentence for the crime of illegal hunting.
Long-term indiscriminate hunting and overeating have greatly reduced the population of the "ultra-high fertility" Chinese toad and increased the difficulty of hunting. According to the confession of the suspect involved in one case, during the peak season a few years ago, more than 100,000 catties of Chinese toads could be sold a day in the illegal trading market in Sichuan, but in the past two years, it has decreased to 30,000 catties a day, and the price of toads has also risen.
The "Farmland Guards" need to be protected urgently
The Chinese toad is the natural guardian of the ecosystem, and their protection is inseparable from green and pollution-free food. Respondents called for immediate measures to be taken to protect the "farmland guards" and curb the large-scale hunting for food.
Jiao Shengwu, a wildlife conservation expert at the Chinese Academy of Forestry's Institute of Forestry, said that the Chinese toad is dominated by harmful insects, accounting for nearly 90 percent of its diet, and that it eats a large amount of pests and preys on many types and quantities.
Zhang Wei, a researcher at the Shanghai Museum of Natural History, who studies amphibians, said that declining toad populations are not conducive to ecological balance. They are important and fragile pivotal species in the biological chain, controlling the number of insects, and serving as food for many birds and mammals, playing an irreplaceable role in maintaining biodiversity.
According to law enforcement officials, because the Chinese toad is included in the "List of Terrestrial Wild Animals with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Value" formulated by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, according to the relevant provisions of the Wildlife Protection Law, it is forbidden to eat and hunt, trade and transport for the purpose of eating.
Hunting, trading, or transporting wild toads for the purpose of eating shall be punished heavily, including confiscation of prey, hunting tools, and illegal gains, and a fine of between one and ten times the value of the prey. where the circumstances are serious, it may constitute crimes such as illegal hunting, the crime of covering up or concealing criminal gains, and the crime of illegally hunting, purchasing, transporting, or selling terrestrial wildlife in accordance with their respective circumstances.
Not only are wild Chinese toads inedible, but according to the Notice of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Regulating the Classification and Management Scope of Prohibited Wild Animals, Chinese toads are prohibited from being cultivated for the purpose of eating, and are allowed to be used for medicinal purposes, display, scientific research and other non-edible purposes.
Law enforcement officials said that many of the people involved in the hunt of Chinese toads have a strong sense of anti-investigation, and it is often difficult to obtain all the evidence needed to handle the case by cracking down only on a certain area or part of the link. It is recommended that cross-regional and cross-departmental linkages should be made in the handling of cases, focusing on illegal hunting, and uprooting the chain of relevant interests.
In the interview, the reporter found that many people do not know that the Chinese toad is not edible. Zhang Wei suggested that the propaganda and education of the ban on the consumption of Chinese toads should be intensified to change customs.
Law enforcement reminds the public that large numbers of toads are killed, spoiled and spoiled during hunting and transportation, and that restaurant processing is often covered up by heavy flavors. In addition, live toads are inherently poisonous and pose a high potential food safety risk if not handled properly.
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph