Xinhua News Agency 5/13/05: Wildlife market raided China

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Xinhua News Agency 2005-05-13 10:34:52

 

Protected wildlife rescued - Shenzhen Daily/Agencies

 

BEIJING, May 13 -- Forestry police rescued thousands of protected

animals from markets and restaurants Wednesday morning in Guangzhou.

 

More than one thousand herons, egrets and 520 kilograms of protected

snakes were discovered in a market on Zengtuo Road.

 

The police surprised poachers who couldn't hide the large amount of

caged snakes.

 

The forestry department and the municipal forestry police jointly

organized surprise raids to crack down on illegal sales, sending out

60 officials and 10 vehicles.

 

Guangzhou has banned snakes sales since 2003, after the outbreak of

SARS.

 

Venders claimed to have commercial wildlife harvesting licenses, but

police found their licenses had expired in 2003.

 

Guangzhou forestry police has solved 34 cases of illegal trading of

protected species, arresting 68 traders and rescuing 239 national

protected animals and 12,788 provincial protected animals.

 

The animals would be sent to the provincial wildlife aid center and

eventually released in the wild, police said.

 

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