(CN) A wild business falls on lean times

[Guest guest]

China Daily

http://china.scmp.com/chimain/ZZZ37G779GD.html

Friday, May 30, 2003

 

Animal traders who have lost their livelihoods plead for more time to

wind up their affairs and recoup investments

LEU SIEW YING in Guangzhou

 

Some 800 traders have made their homes in Xinyuan market in

Guangzhou over the years, along with the wild animals they sell.

 

But the Sars outbreak has put a stop to their lucrative

business, even though none of the traders has fallen victim to the virus.

 

Their trade, which includes masked palm civets, pangolins,

monkeys, snakes and pheasants, is so profitable that many traders - half of

them peasants and the other half laid-off workers - have vans to transport

their merchandise.

 

But a week ago, the city government withdrew all licences for

trading in wild animals after scientists in Shenzhen and Hong Kong

discovered a strain of the coronavirus that genetically resembles the Sars

virus in six masked palm civets.

 

Earlier, bad publicity about the market because of the link

between animals and Sars had deterred customers from eating exotic food or

even stepping foot in the dingy market.

 

Yesterday, 24 enforcement officers from Baiyun district commerce

department inspected the cleaned-up market and found no trace of illegal

animals. Some officers wore sandals, footwear that would have been

inappropriate a few weeks ago, when the floor was covered with dirt and dead

birds.

 

" I sold all my stock at 8 yuan [HK$7.50] a jin [500 grams] as

soon as I learned about the new regulations, " said Mr Xiao, a snake dealer

from Hunan.

 

Mr Xiao said he lost 12 yuan per jin and was owed money by

restaurants. " They have to consider our losses. We operate legally but now

they have withdrawn our licences. There was no negotiation. "

 

One delivery man from Sichuan said: " There is no Sars here. All

of us are healthy because we work hard. Those who fall ill are cadres and

the rich who don't have to labour and so have low immunity. " His words

received a round of applause.

 

A woman worker named Wang from Shunde city in Guangdong said:

" We have never worn masks. Yesterday, two Hong Kong reporters came and they

were wearing masks. That made us afraid. Do they have Sars? Do a good deed:

tell our story. "

 

Traders said they should be given more time to wind up their

businesses and recoup their investments. They complained that they were owed

up to 1 million yuan by restaurants whose businesses had been hit by Sars.

 

Ms Li, a 35-year-old laid-off textile worker from Hunan, said

she was owed more than 100,000 yuan for snakes sold to restaurants. " This is

the money I brought with me to start a new business, and now we have

problems feeding ourselves, " she said. " If I can recover the money, I can

start another business. "

 

Mr Tang, a snake farmer from Hunan who has to support six

dependents, said he was owed 700,000 yuan. " I'll wait to collect my bills

and then we will go back to our land. "

 

Dealers who live at the market with their family and staff - a

community numbering nearly 5,000 - said the ban on animal trade and

consumption would have repercussions on the economy because of the taxes

they paid and because it affected farmers and laid-off workers.

 

They said they paid 4,000 yuan a year to the government for

forest conservation and several hundred yuan a month in taxes.

 

Mr Hu, who had 400 or 500 masked palm civets on his Hunan farm,

said he had had to invest about 400 yuan to raise each animal.

 

" I used to sell them for 80 yuan per jin, but business became so

bad that I had to get rid of them at 10 to 20 yuan per jin. "