China is considering changes to its wildlife protection law to remove some captive-bred endangered animals from the country's protection list, a disturbing change that animal rights activists say could lead to extinction of certain species in the country.
According to the latest revised draft presented to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for a second reading on Monday, some animal populations, bred under controlled conditions through mature techniques, could be removed from the protection list and be regulated differently from wild populations, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Different regulations for animal populations bred in captivity and those in the wild are consistent with internationally accepted practices, said a report on the revisions, citing suggestions solicited on the first version of the revised draft.
The new draft added carrying out captive breeding programs of those removed from the protection list requires obtaining permits from the authorities, and the sale and utilization of such animals requires special tags issued from the authorities to ensure traceability, Xinhua reported.
"It is a worrying sign … Pandas can also be successfully bred under mature techniques. Are we also allowed to remove them from the protection list and eat their meat?" said Zhang Xiaohai, executive secretary-general of Ta Foundation, a Chinese animal protection NGO.
Underground market
The NPC report raised the example of sika deer bred in controlled environments. Apart from sika deer, over 10,000 black bears and thousands of tigers are also held in captivity in China. While bile is extracted from living, caged bears for medical use blatantly, underground markets also exist for tiger meat and tiger bones, said Sun Quanhui, a senior science adviser at World Animal Protection, an international non-profit animal welfare organization.
In an article published on China Environment News, Chang Jiwen, a researcher of the Development Research Center of the State Council, proposed making exceptions for species on the appendixes of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), including tigers and bears.
He also suggested a ban on captive breeding of CITES species for medical use when supplement medicines are available, along with another ban on animal abuse.
In 2003, China started allowing captive breeding of 54 species which there are "mature" breeding technologies, but many of them are foreign species, indicating less impact on native species, Sun told the Global Times. "The industrialization of captive breeding of wildlife animals will give a spur to the market demands, which will lead to poaching."
"Many people in China still believe that wildlife preservation can be done through captive breeding. They fail to realize that many different kinds of captive wildlife species are unable to survive in the wild. This means captive breeding is of little help in preventing these species from becoming extinct," Sun said.
No eating wildlife
The revised draft also includes new clauses proscribing production of and business operation on food made from wildlife on China's special State protection list. It also bans eating illegally-purchased wildlife from the protected list, China News Service (CNS) reported.
Under China's Criminal Law, those who purchase wildlife products with the knowledge of their endangerment for food or other illegal purposes can be sentenced to more than 10 years in jail under "especially serious circumstances."
The draft has in fact left an open door for "legal purchase" which in some way shows that the authorities are more encouraging than discouraging on the utilization of wildlife animal resources, Zhang said, expressing hope for a less discouraging tone in the third reading before the revised draft is passed.
"Apart from animal welfare, which is often sacrificed during captive breeding, germplasms (living genetic resources) are often needed from the wild to maintain genetic diversity for captive-bred populations," Sun noted.