The coronavirus outbreak has closed as many as 20,000 wildlife farms in succession, raising species such as peacocks, civets, porcupines, ostriches, geese and wild boars, exposing the hitherto unknown scale of the industry.
Just a few weeks ago, some places were vigorously advocating wildlife farming, believing that this is a simple way for rural people in China to get rich.
But the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which has now killed 2,873 people and more than 79,968 known infections, is believed to have originated from wild animals sold at a market in Wuhan in early December, prompting authorities to engage in massive rethinking of how to manage the deal.
In order to curb the spread of the virus, China issued a temporary ban on wildlife trade at the end of January, and in early February began a widespread ban on wildlife breeding facilities.
Now top legislators are now rushing to amend the country's wildlife protection law and potentially restructure regulations on the use of wildlife in food and traditional Chinese medicine.
Wildlife conservation groups see the current version of the law as problematic because it focuses on the use of wildlife rather than protecting wildlife.
Steve, wildlife aid chief representative in Beijing, said: "The coronavirus outbreak is rapidly pushing China to reassess its relationship with wildlife. "There is a high risk of impacts on both human health and wildlife populations on the scale of this culture."
This Monday, the National People's Congress issued new measures to restrict wildlife trade, banning the consumption and sale of wildlife in the market from now on. However, traditional Chinese medicine, fur and leather farming operations have not been affected, and these lucrative markets are believed to have fueled the illegal poaching of animals such as tigers and pangolins.
Over the past few years, some localities have been pushing for the idea that "wildlife domestication" is a key part of rural development, ecotourism and poverty alleviation. A 2017 report on the development of the wildlife farming industry released by the Chinese Academy of Engineering valued the wildlife farming industry at 520 billion yuan.
Just a few weeks before the outbreak, farmers were still being encouraged in some places to enter the wildlife breeding field, than the beaver, a species accurately positioned as a SARS carrier, a disease similar to the new coronavirus.
"Why were civets still encouraged to breed and be eaten after the SARS outbreak in 2003?" Because practitioners and so on need this.
How do they do this? They urged the government to support them under the pretext of economic development.
On state television, the popular "Sutra of Fortune", which has been broadcast since 2001, often boasts of breeding certain animals – bamboo rats, snakes, toads, porcupines and squirrels – all of which have played the main role.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, little was known about the size of the wildlife farm industry, and permits were largely regulated by provincial and local forestry bureaus, which would not disclose full information about the breeding operations under their supervision. A Xinhua news report on Feb. 17 showed that from 2005 to 2013, the Forestry Bureau issued only 3,725 state-level breeding and business licenses.
But since the outbreak began, at least 19,000 wildlife breeding sites across the country have been closed, including about 4,600 in Jilin Province, a major traditional Chinese medicine center.
The report also didn't provide much detail about the closure and what happened to the animals, though some wild animals were not killed, possibly because of compensation issues.
Chen Hong, a peacock keeper in Liuyang, Hunan Province, said she was worried about her losses and whether she would be compensated after the closure of business on January 24.
"We are not allowed to sell animals, transport animals, or let anyone near them, and we have to disinfect the facility once a day," Chen said. "Usually at this time of year, our feedlots are packed with customers and tourists. We haven't received notices about what to do yet, peacocks are still here, and we may not know how to deal with them until the outbreak is brought under control.
"We are very worried about the future of the feedlot," she added. The closure has already resulted in a loss of 400,000-500,000 yuan in sales, and if they decide to ban raising peacocks altogether, she will lose even more, at least 1 million yuan.
In addition to being used in traditional Chinese medicine, most of the meat in the wildlife trade is sold online or sold to "wet markets", such as the "wet market" that is believed to have started the outbreak of the new coronavirus in Wuhan.
Animals sold in these markets are often kept in dirty environments, leaving them to lie in their own feces, which means they breed disease and then spread it into humans. There are similar markets across the country that have been the source of the epidemic in the past.
All animals or parts of their bodies intended for human consumption should go through food and health checks, but it can be seen that sellers on the market today never thought of this. Most wild animals are sold without a health check.
There have been calls for deep regulatory reforms to eliminate conflicting responsibilities among forestry authorities and for governments to shift their mindset from promoting wildlife use to protecting wildlife.
While most people would strongly support a ban on the sale of wildlife, imposing a ban on mature trade overnight is not an easy task.
Steven, founder of the anti-wildlife trafficking group, said: "It is commendable that China has now taken such a bold move to ban the wildlife trade, and we should encourage China to maintain this ban permanently." "An ongoing ban will save human lives and help restore wildlife populations around the world."