Under the ban, farms face an embarrassing situation that they cannot be sold and must not be raised
□ Reporter Zhu Ningning
Wuyishan Kangyao Snake Breeding Co., Ltd. is the largest private enterprise in Fujian Province in the breeding and operation of wild animal snakes, with the scope of operation of snake domestication, breeding, retail, wholesale, snake culture display, viewing, tourism. Among them, the edible snake products account for about 90%, and the medicinal snake products account for about 10%. On June 14, the relevant decisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the Law Enforcement Inspection Team of the Wildlife Protection Law came to the enterprise to learn about the relevant situation.
Zhang Zhaokang, the head of the company, is more than 40 years old this year, and has been raising snakes for more than 20 years, and the craft of raising snakes is already the fourth generation in his generation. Affected by the epidemic, since the second day of the first month of the first month of this year, the company has been in a state of suspension, not only sealing the factory, but also not allowing anyone to enter. In February this year, after the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Completely Banning illegal wildlife trade, eliminating the bad habit of indiscriminately eating wild animals, and effectively protecting the people's life, health and safety (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), Zhang Zhaokang realized that his business must change production.
Zhang Zhaokang said frankly that although raising snakes is very hard, he has been doing this for more than 20 years, and without other labor skills, once the company closes the family life will face difficulties. On the one hand, Zhang Zhaokang does feel that the protection of wild animals is a matter of necessity and necessity, and he firmly supports and will definitely change production. But on the other hand, he was a little reluctant and felt that the trade of raising snakes could not be lost. Therefore, the initial plan is to be a research base for snakes, to help children understand the nature of snakes, to teach children how to prevent being bitten by snakes, and how to save themselves if they are bitten.
At present, the biggest problem he faces is how to properly handle various products according to law. "At present, the company still has 50 tons of various snake products inventory and more than 20,000 frozen snakes, which do not know how to deal with it. In the next step, how to change production, how to adjust in time, and change production and operation activities are still unknown. We hope that the government can introduce relevant policies as soon as possible to guide our farmers to transform and upgrade. Zhang Zhaokang said.
The problems Zhang Zhaokang faced are not unique. It is understood that the wildlife breeding industry in Fujian Province has begun to take shape, there are 1019 wild animal farms of various types, classified according to the purpose of breeding, 912 edible, 97 ornamental, 7 medicinal and 3 scientific research. The farm (edible) for food purposes involves a total of 29 species of animals, with a total inventory of about 20.6 million (bulk breeding species include spiny-breasted frogs, snakes, etc.), with a large number of employees, about 2500 people. Some farms are facing pressures such as broken capital chains, inability to repay debts, feed supply cuts, etc., coupled with the squeezing of the breeding places by the pressurized animals and the unknown prospects for the breeding of four kinds of animals, bamboo rats, porcupines, civets and snakes, and the need to continue to invest in feeding, which has aggravated the anxiety of farmers. Therefore, the main difficulty in implementing the Decision at present lies in the retirement and transfer of existing legal farms to production.
It is worth mentioning that before, when the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress conducted a law enforcement inspection of the Wildlife Protection Law, it was generally reflected that the current compensation, disposal and production policies and measures related to aquaculture enterprises that need to be transformed and adjusted have not been fully followed up and clarified in a timely manner, and many farms are in an embarrassing situation of not being able to sell, kill and must be raised, and the financial pressure of farmers is large, and the economic losses are also large, which brings instability to society.
"According to the directory of livestock, poultry and aquatic animals issued by the state, we have carefully sorted out that 25 of the 29 species of animals bred for the purpose of food can be transformed by including the management of livestock, poultry and aquatic animals in accordance with the law or guiding the adjustment of breeding purposes, and the animals that need to be raised for food purposes are bamboo rats, porcupines, civets and snakes. The four species of animals that were retired involved a total of 151 poor households with an investment amount of about 3.72 million yuan. The person in charge of the Fujian Forestry Bureau said.
According to reports, in accordance with the requirements of the "Decision" on supporting, guiding and helping affected farmers to adjust and transform their production and operation activities, Fujian Province has been actively promoting the retirement of farms and the transfer of production and work. In terms of implementing support policies, with the approval of the Fujian Provincial Government, the Fujian Forestry Bureau issued the implementation plan for the retirement and conversion of wild animal farms for the purpose of consumption in the form of the joint meeting document on the protection of wild animals and the elimination of the bad habit of indiscriminate consumption of wild animals, and implemented 8 support policies such as withdrawal compensation, optimization of loan procedures to guide breeding adjustment, development of alternative industries, increase employment assistance, implementation of precise poverty alleviation, strengthening comprehensive utilization, and opening up channels for increasing income.
It is reported that at present, all localities in Fujian Province are implementing support policies in accordance with "one policy at a time" and promoting the standardized, stable, orderly and effective retirement and conversion of farms and the transfer of employees. By the beginning of June, 120 farms had completed the adjustment and transformation.
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