The Chinese city of Shenzhen becomes the first to legislate a ban on the trading and consumption of certain animals, including cats and dogs
The city of Shenzhen has become the first in China to set out new rules defining the consumption of animals, including a ban on the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat.
The new laws also banned slaughtering animals publicly and in your own house. Basically no live animals can be sold for food purposes. If you want to eat meat, they have to come from legitimate butchers that can be regulated by the government.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in Wuhan China, and has been linked to the consumption of wild animals, wildlife trade and consumption pose a major hidden danger to public health safety.
As a result, China has enacted legislation on consuming wild animals in many places, Guangdong, Shenzhen and Zhuhai pass are all to pass their own bans on the wild animal trade.
Breaking the law comes with hefty fines of up to 150,000 yuan (nearly £17,000) and harsher punishments, a statement by the Shenzhen municipal body warned.
Illegal consumption of wild animals and their products can be punished by up to 30 times the value of the goods.
These new laws are part of a new bill of legislation called the ‘Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Regulations on the Comprehensive Ban on Wild Animals’,.
The law, which comes into effect from the 1st of May, also places a ban on the breeding, sale, and consumption of protected wildlife species, including snakes and lizards.
Despite it seeming like China is taking steps to reduce anymore possible deseases being spread between wild animals and humans, China has also just approved the use of bear bile as a medicine to treat COVID-19 patients.
Bear bile has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for a long time, as it contains the active ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid, which can be used to dissolve gallstones and treat liver disease, there is however no evidence to prove it is effective in treating the coronavirus.
Brian Daly, a spokesman for the Animals Asia Foundation, has said:
“We shouldn’t be relying on wildlife products like bear bile as the solution to combat a deadly virus that appears to have originated from wildlife.”
