"What is the taste of coconut crab" and "Teach to make braised sturgeon", will the police knock on the door?

Source: People's Daily - Strong Countries Forum

When you think of sturgeon, coconut crabs, hexagonal dinosaurs and other animals, your first reaction is "protecting animals, everyone is responsible", or "braised sturgeon", "steamed coconut crabs", "cute pets"?

Recently, there have been some content on the short video platform of "evaluating precious ingredients" and "breeding rare pets", and some netizens have questioned whether these rare animals and plants are allowed to eat and raise? In this regard, Wei Qiwei, chief scientist of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences and director of the Key Laboratory of Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that eating wild animals protected by the state without permission can be investigated for criminal liability.

"China has completely banned the illegal wildlife trade and eliminated the bad habit of indiscriminately eating wild animals." Wei Qiwei introduced that the "Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Completely Banning Illegal Wildlife Trade, Eliminating the Bad Habit of Eating Wild Animals, and Effectively Protecting the People's Life, Health and Safety" (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), which was issued last year, clearly stipulates that the consumption of terrestrial wild animals (including artificially bred and raised wild animals) is completely prohibited.

Terrestrial wild animals are not allowed to eat, but what about aquatic ones? Wei Qiwei further explained that fishing for natural fishery resources such as fish is an important agricultural production method, and it is also a common international practice, and the Fishery Law and other existing norms. Therefore, the scope of the prohibition covered by the Decision mainly focuses on terrestrial wild animals, and the consumption of other aquatic wild animals is not prohibited except for rare and endangered aquatic wild animals that are prohibited by laws and regulations such as the Wildlife Protection Law.

"At the beginning of this year, a person in Nantong 'defied the wind and committed a crime,' fished and ate Chinese sturgeon without permission, and was sentenced to one year and four months in prison." Wei Qiwei reminded that no matter what kind of wild animals, whether they are protected by the state or not, from the perspective of safety and civilization, it is best not to eat them.

Regarding the video, some online bloggers claim that the "farmed" ethnic group is edible, Wei Qiwei said that according to the Wildlife Protection Law, only farmed protected animals included in the "Artificial Breeding Animal List" can be used as food, if not within the scope of the list, even if they are farmed, they cannot be eaten. For example, farmed Chinese sturgeon and Yangtze River sturgeon are also not allowed to be eaten.

As for the controversy over the existence of species such as coconut crabs, "some countries let them eat, some countries do not let them eat", he explained that some species survive well in one area and have very few in other areas, resulting in different conservation policies, which is common. What we can do is to find out the source, avoid buying protected animals in endangered areas, and if they can't be confirmed, it is advisable not to eat them.

"I don't eat, let's raise the general manager!" In response to this voice, Wei Qiwei said that raising national protected animals requires the approval of the forestry and agricultural departments, and private breeding is illegal. In addition, for conventional wild species, if the scale of private breeding is too large, it will destroy the wild population ecology of the species and have a negative impact on the ecosystem, and breeding should be avoided as much as possible.

"Everyone has a responsibility to protect biodiversity." Wei Qiwei said that there are no borders to protect endangered animals. He suggested that before buying uncommon food and raising so-called "rare" pets, it is necessary to find out "what is and where it comes from", and do not eat and raise under unknown conditions. There are both security risks and disadvantages to the protection of biodiversity, and may even violate criminal law. In addition, short video bloggers should pay more attention to this matter, do not treat protected animals as "food" and "pets", otherwise it is easy to mislead the audience. The resulting "hunting" trend will make endangered animals more threatened. (Intern Liu Mingxi)