(CN) Chinese Police Intercept 1,400 Slain Wild Animals

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BEIJING, Dec 19, 2000 -- (Reuters) Chinese police have intercepted a shipment of

1,400 illegally slain wild animals, including boars, deer and three tons of

hares and pheasants, state media said on Tuesday.

 

Many of the dead animals, discovered in five containers on Monday in the

northwestern province of Shaanxi, were stuffed into boxes marked " apples " and

" veterinary medicine " and were apparently bound for dinner plates and medicine

jars in northeastern China.

 

Authorities were questioning five suspects in the case, the biggest of its kind

in a decade in the province, the China Daily newspaper said.

 

" The possibility that there is an organized gang that trafficks in wild animals

is very real, " it quoted Zhou Lingguo, director of the Provincial Wild Animal

Protection Office, as saying.

 

None of the animals were listed as nationally protected species, it quoted Zhou

as saying.

 

Animal parts, including those of many endangered species, are used as

ingredients in traditional medicine. Many Chinese also consider wild animal meat

a delicacy more nutritious than the flesh of domesticated pigs, chickens and

cattle.

 

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