(CN) Market shuts down trade on live animals

[Guest guest]

China Daily

http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2003-06-02/117367.html

 

06/02/2003

 

GUANGZHOU: Li Baorong, 32, a wild animal wholesale dealer in Xinyuan Market,

was sitting idly on a bench at 10 am.

In the past, this was a booming hour for business.

 

But these days, Li and nearly 300 other stallholders in the market have seen

their business plummet on a daily basis.

 

Xinyuan Market is one of the biggest trade centres for snake, fowl and other

animals. Opened six years ago, it is located about 20 kilometres northwest

of the centre of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

There are a few other smaller animal markets in the neighbourhood. The area

boasts around 1,000 traders engaged in the business of providing an array of

live animals to the local catering industry.

 

" I still hold a glimmer of hope for a recovery, " said Li, " that's why I

haven't left. "

 

But quite a number of traders have shut up shop and either headed for their

hometowns in neighbouring Hunan Province or the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous

Region or are making plans to do so.

 

The exodus began last Monday, when scientists announced that they had found

a possible link between civets and SARS.

 

On May 23 it was announced that research by experts with the University of

Hong Kong and the Centre for Disease Control in Shenzhen revealed that a

SARS-like coronavirus had been found in animal samples.

 

Researchers cautioned about drawing hurried conclusions. However, the news

had a potent effect on trade. Business went flat, even though local

industrial and commercial administration officials, who have been making

regular rounds in the market, say that none of the traders at Xinyuan have

gone down with SARS.

 

In each of the market's four 100-metre-long, 8-metre-wide corridors lined

with plastic-covered stalls, one-third were locked with rolling iron doors.

The rest, like Li's, are open but doing almost no business.

 

Sitting on four stools around a table, a group play cards. Yawning is common

these days.

 

" It wasn't like this before the announcement that a SARS-like virus was

detected in the animals, " Li said.

 

" Our business licences were collected by officials from the Industrial and

Commercial Administration days ago, " said Wang Guoqing, who has a

neighbouring stall to Li and specializes in dealing with masked palm civets.

 

The licence was jointly issued by the local Industrial and Commercial

Administration and Forestry Bureau.

 

Originally from Hunan Province, Li started his business selling and buying

snakes, fowl and civets some 20 years ago.

 

He lives with his wife and child in Guangzhou, but has to send money home to

help support an extended family that includes his grandmother.

 

Li insisted that he and other vendors " know very clearly what is permitted

and what's on the national list for protection, " he said.

 

" Just one night everything changed, " he said, adding that at present he is

suffering a daily loss of about 200 yuan (US$24.2) in rent and other fees

alone, before even taking into account his earning losses.

 

Meanwhile, a restaurant, one of his customers, still owes him 108,000 yuan

(US$13,043), for a consignment of snakes.

 

When the link between SARS and animals was made the restaurant took dishes

such as snake and civet off its menu. Unable to recoup its money by selling

such food, the restaurant is not in a position to pay Li, he said with

frustration.

 

Like Li, Wang Guoqing, also from Hunan, said he is the main provider for his

extended rural family.

 

Wang claims that most of the civets in the market are raised on the farms,

" whose fathers or grandfathers are the wild ones.

 

" Raising civets is just like raising pigs, very easy, " said Wang, who in the

past occasionally kept a number of civets.

 

" By nature they like to eat fruit, but the raised ones also can be fed with

rice, adding some sugar into it would be better. "

 

From his experience and knowledge civets do not easily get ill.

 

The cost of raising a palm civet is about 400 yuan (US$48.3) a year. Civets

are ready for sale after only a year's nursing. The smallest weigh about 1

kilogram while the largest can weigh up to 7 kilograms. Palm civets sell at

about 60 yuan (US$7.25) for half a kilogram, with top prices reaching of 80

yuan (US$9.6), Wang said.

 

Right now an anxious Wang is at a loss as to what to do and indeed what the

future will hold.

 

Next to the Xinyuan Market stands an aquatic products market, but a look

inside reveals a similar scene to Xinyuan - stagnant and lifeless.