Li mou in Shandong started a pet business, but he bought and sold a variety of rare and endangered wild animals, with hundreds of them. Recently, the Licheng District People's Court in Jinan City, Shandong Province, disclosed such a case.
Since 2018, Li Mou has, without the permission of the competent state authorities, raised and bred precious and endangered wild animals such as Mexican red-knee bird-catching spiders, Mexican fire-knee bird-catching spiders, and general giant scorpions purchased by him in his rental houses in Tianqiao District, Licheng District and other places in Jinan City, and sold them to the outside world through online platforms such as Taobao, WeChat, and Pinduoduo, and delivered the animals involved in the case by express mail or door-to-door pick-up.
According to statistics, Li has sold 133 bird-catching spiders, 3 general giant scorpions and 1 ball python.
In March 2020, Li purchased a batch of Mexican firefoot bird-catching spider seedlings from Qiu through WeChat.
Since 2018, Qiu Mou has raised and bred a pair of Mexican firefoot bird-catching spiders purchased in a rental house in the Donggang District of Rizhao City without the permission of the national authorities. In March 2020, after Qiu contacted Li through WeChat, the two agreed that Qiu would sell 200 Mexican firefoot bird spider seedlings from his breeding to Li at a price of 400 yuan. After Li paid the price, Qiu mailed 200 seedlings to Li Song by courier.
After the incident, the seven species of spiders identified as involved in the case were listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (hereinafter referred to as the CITES Convention). The species of the General Giant Scorpion involved in the case has been listed in Appendix II of the CITES Convention. The ball python involved in the case belongs to the anacondae family, and all species under the anacondae are listed as second-level protected animals in the List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection. Wild animals under national secondary protection listed in the List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection, wild animals listed in Appendices I and II of the CITES Convention, and species domesticated and bred are all "precious and endangered wild animals" as provided for in the first paragraph of Article 341 of the Criminal Law. The People's Court of Licheng District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, held in the first instance that Li's illegal acquisition, transportation, and sale of rare and endangered wild animals under national key protection, and Qiu's illegal sale and transportation of rare and endangered wild animals under key national protection, both of whose conduct had constituted the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals.
The acquisition and sale of animals are not necessarily for profit, and the number of animals involved in the case is as high as 200, and the criminal acts of the two defendants pose a greater threat to China's ecological environment; at the same time, such illegal and criminal activities may also aggravate the illegal trade of wild animals in the country of origin, and even endanger the local ecological balance, and the social harm of their acts is relatively large.
The court sentenced Li to two years and one month in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan for the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals in the first instance, and sentenced Qiu to one year in prison and a fine of 6,000 yuan for the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Zhou Lingru intern Guan Yu