1. CHINA

WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING
1.
Customs officers at Fanling have seized more than two tonnes of pangolin skin, believed to have come from about 3,900 of the endangered scaly ant-eater. They also found a bag of dried skin of green sea turtle - an endangered species - when the owner of a trading company arrived in a container yard in Ping Che, Fanling, to collect the goods on Wednesday afternoon. The consignment was hidden under about 800 bags of seaweed in two containers that arrived from Indonesia last week, said Chu Man-bun of the Customs and Excise Department. "The consignment is worth about $1.6 million on the retail market and it is our largest seizure of pangolin scales. We believe that it is destined for Shenzhen," Mr Chu said. "The animal parts are for use as Chinese medicine." Under the Animals and Plants (Protection of Endangered Species) Ordinance, the maximum penalty is a $5 million fine and two years' jail. The 46-year-old owner of the trading company was arrested and released on $10,000 bail.
Date: 17/03/00
Author: Clifford Lo
Copyright by South China Morning Post

2.
Customs authorities in Southwest China's Yunnan Province have uncovered a massive case of smuggling skins or parts of endangered species of wild animals.
It was the biggest haul since 1949, investigating authorities confirmed. What surprised the anti-smuggling inspectors most was not only the large amount of contraband they found but the unconventional way used to smuggle the commodities, according to China Central Television Station (CCTV). All of the deals made between smugglers and buyers were sent through the mail, particularly surface mail. This was to escape checking by the police and customs' network to combat cross-border smuggling, police said. 
The case and suspects involved are now under further investigation by authorities, CCTV said.
In Yunnan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region alone, two smugglers were found to have sent more than 5,000 hides of wild animals, a local postmaster said, indicating that hundreds of people were engaged in the illegal business there. 
During recent routine checks in Yunnan's Ruili Customs, many sacks of mail bags weighing about 470 kilograms of skins taken from cobra and pallas pit vipers caught the eye of customs inspectors. 
The inspectors trailed the clues on the bags to a house of one of the suspects who was about to pick up the goods. The anti-smuggling inspectors seized 575 python skins, four tiger furs and numerous leopard hides, bear skins and gaur hides, as well as a large number of monkey craniums and elephant tusks. 
It was amazing to find such a large number of hides and parts of wild animals piled up in a house of less than 70 square metres, waiting to be sent out through the mails.
It was also the first time for smugglers to have been foiled in such a large quantity of products made from poached wild animals, with some endangered species under the State's top protection, authorities said.
China has intensified its crackdown on all illegal trading of endangered species of wild fauna since 1981 with its official participation in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But, poaching and trading of wild animals have not been controlled completely today. Driven by huge profits, unlawful traders have colluded with overseas businessmen, officials of the State Forest Administration conceded.
Date: 07/08/99 
Author: Guo Nei
Copyright by China Daily

CAT FEASTS

Beijing Cats Fall Victim to Poachers

From: 'Cat Fancy' online magazine.
BEIJING - Since September, an estimated 500 Beijing families have reported their cats stolen, said Lu Di of the country's national Association for the Protection of Small Animals. The problem, it seems, stems from the spread of Cantonese-style restaurants, where cat meat is a favorite among some diners.

"It's a pity that our government hasn't taken any action to stop this," Lu Di said. Lu Di claims police have simply watched as catnappers did their thing. Some families have sought police assistance, only to be told the city has no specific laws related to the theft of pets.

Lu Di said the stolen cats are sold to wholesale markets for about $3 each. There they await sale to restaurants, which often keep them live in cages for inspection by diners before slaughter.

WILDLIFE FEASTS 

Wealthy Chinese Eating Wildlife into Extinction
By Hu Pan

BEIJING, China, January 31, 2000 (ENS) - Thrilled by the wider choice of food that wealth brings, Chinese people are now consuming the country's beleaguered wildlife at a rapid rate. This trend will be highly evident as they celebrate the New Year with lavish feasts which are certain to include various wildlife specialties. As the first Chinese New Year of the 21st century approaches on February 6, many in China have reason to rejoice. Over the last two decades, the country has enjoyed spectacular economic growth, and many people have grown wealthier in a relatively short time. Yet there are signs that the Chinese may be destroying their fellow creatures while enjoying their new prosperity.

A recent survey conducted in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province revealed that 95 percent of the city's inhabitants have eaten some form of wildlife. More than 50 percent of those polled said they believe that eating wildlife food is healthy. Shenzhen's Wildlife Administration discovered that 40 different species of wildlife are currently being offered in restaurants and hotels. Most restaurants, supermarkets, and farmers' markets sell wildlife as food. Perhaps the most popular wildlife food in Shenzhen now is the snake. The market price for poisonous snakes has risen to over 100 yuan per kilogram. Non-poisonous snakes command over 50 yuan per kilogram. Wild boars and civet cats are also consumed on a large scale. Of the different types of wildlife that are eaten, some supposedly enjoy strict government protection - large pythons, pangolins, many species of rare birds.

For millions of people throughout China but most notably in the South, eating wild animals has become a way of life. In Guangdong province's Nankun Mountains, numerous wildlife restaurants thrive despite the fact that the region is designated as a conservation sector. Every day restaurant workers kill many wild animals, and no one acts to stop them. Wild macaques, owls, pangolins, and giant lizards are among the many different animals that are eaten. Captured macaques are killed in gruesome ways. First the restaurant employees stuff a macaque in a bag and place the bag in water until the animal loses consciousness. Next they take the macaque out and pour boiling water on its body, before starting to pull off its body hair. Another man who owns a restaurant says that he actually shows his customers how live giant lizards are killed.

In metropolitan Shanghai, too, a lot of wildlife food is consumed by eager customers. As Shanghai has developed economically, the appetites of its inhabitants have expanded. Historically, Shanghai residents have never eaten much snake, but now they consume more than 1,000 tons of snakes per year, according to a study conducted by the city's Wildlife Association and Huadong Normal University. Over the past two years, birds as well as toads and frogs have been killed en masse in the Shanghai area. The same study by the Wildlife Association and Huadong Normal University found that 50-plus tons of frogs are eaten each year. Highly endangered species, such as the Tibetan antelope, called the chiru, have started to appear on Shanghai restaurant menus. The Tibetan antelope is famous as the source of the luxurious shahtoosh ring shawls. It has recently been recognized as a species requiring extensive protection from poachers.

In Nanning, Guangxi province, directly west of Guangdong, the soft-shell sea turtle is bearing the brunt of the assault on wildlife. Depressed by the slaughter of these turtles, Shu Yuyan of Guangxi Medical School says they have been captured for many years because their blue-colored blood is a good poison indicator. In the past many scientists had extracted their blood in such ways so as to not kill them. They are not known to be particularly delicious, but in China they are regarded as healthy to eat. Each year now they are captured by the tens of thousands to be shipped to restaurants all over the country, and their numbers are rapidly declining.

Apart from the soft-shell sea turtle, virtually all the wildlife in the Nanning area is now gone. The human destruction of wildlife here started long ago.

On Nanning's Hunan Road, many restaurants have signs that assure prospective customers that the animals they offer are indeed captured from the wild. The restaurants serve peacock, wild swan, snake, turtle, eagle, alligator, pangolin, civet cat, and monkey. Many restaurants take customers to see their live animal storage cages to pick which animals they would like to have. In all, there are roughly 200 restaurants in Nanning serving wildlife food. Wildlife statistics for Guangxi show that every year in the province tens of thousands of pangolins are eaten although they are supposedly government-protected. Guangxi eats more primates than any other province in China, in both type and number. These primates are on the whole helpless to avoid capture. Many rare birds in Guangxi are already extinct. Because the practice is so popular, the Chinese government has found it difficult to effectively limit wildlife consumption, but efforts are underway as the government has become increasingly conscious of the massive human consumption of wildlife.

In December 1999, Guangdong's provincial government published a list of nine birds that are legal to eat. On January 16, the national government launched the "South Number Two Action," a coordinated campaign to protect wildlife in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Fujian. This is the second major operation of its kind in the history of the People's Republic, coming after the "Hol Xil Number One Action" in April 1999 that cracked down on Tibetan antelope poachers.

Some Chinese NGOs and citizens are also trying to modify the desire to consume wild animals and birds. In December of 1999, Shanghai's Wildlife Protection Association publicized a proposal, "Say no to eating wildlife!" This was a rare condemnation of a practice that is so widely accepted. Also in Shanghai last year, thousands of students signed a petition demanding an end to the eating of wild animals.

"FEROCITY TRAINING"

Sunday Morning Post, Hong Kong - 28th November 1999 by CORTLAN BENNETT
http://www.scmp.com

The tigers are fit and well-fed at the Xiongsheng Bear and Tiger Mountain Village in the scenic city of Guilin, Guangxi province. But their fate, both barbarous and illegal, wrenches the stomach. For at this purported "endangered species sanctuary", 15 minutes' drive from the city that is one of China's most popular tourist destinations, the big cats are fed live domestic animals in a cheering coliseum of bloodthirsty onlookers - only to be served up themselves to Taiwanese and local tourists who wash the tiger meat down with tiger-bone and bear gall-bladder wine.

This spectacle is carried out under the guise of rehabilitating the park's more than 200 protected tigers for eventual release into the wild. The open sale of products of endangered tigers and bears, however, is purely for profit.

The events have outraged not only local and international animal rights organisations, but also the central Government, which has told the park three times in the past two weeks to cease its illegal sale of endangered species and brutal treatment of animals in its care.

The park came to the notice of Animals Asia Foundation executive director Jill Robinson, who works in both Hong Kong and Beijing to fight animal cruelty and who, by a strange twist, was invited to the park's opening in April last year. She later discovered the name of Animals Asia and its sponsor, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, being falsely used to promote the park and condone its activities.

The park is not the only one offering such shows. A Sunday Morning Post investigation in 1995 of Shenzhen Safari Park at Xili Lake found tigers being thrown live chickens by grinning visitors. After that practice was banned, fighting horse shows were introduced in 1997 to woo back lost audiences.

In June, Beijing drafted the Regulation for Nationwide Wildlife Parks. And after a visit last month to the Guilin park by Ms Robinson and Animals Asia project director Boris Chiao, she obtained a pledge this month from Zhang Jianlong, director of the Department of Wild Fauna and Flora Conservation in the State Forestry Administration, that live animal feeding had been stopped and the park would be further investigated.

Notified by the Post of the barbarity seen by reporters last Tuesday, she said: "It is an embarrassment not only to us and all our efforts to stop this cruel and illegal treatment of animals, but it is humiliating to the central Government which only last week declared it had put an end to the live feeding of animals as entertainment in such parks, and has shown great concern in going to lengths to stamp out the illegal trade in endangered species.

"What the park has continued to do - despite repeated warnings not to - is to breach international and Chinese regulations and direct central Government instructions. This is just a slap in the face to all concerned. We are very upset and still trying to understand how it can continue to get away with it."

Yet it does. Just an hour's flight from Hong Kong, Tiger Mountain, as the park is known, is off the main highway that links Guilin airport to the Guangxi provincial capital, Nanning. Though not shown on English maps, the park and its gruesome forms of "family entertainment" are openly touted on signboards and through local travel and tourist services within the city. Ironically, the park has pictures of US President Bill Clinton when he was in Guilin last year, where he made an impassioned plea to save the environment.

Privately funded, the safari park claims to be "the largest base for science, breeding and wildlife of tigers and black bears in the world". Owner Zhou Weisen said his "team of breeding experts" aimed to produce 500 tigers by the millennium (numbers have already doubled from 100 to 200 in the past 18 months), while signs inside the park proclaim: "We are helping save endangered species."

In reality, this "scientific park" is a sacrificial circus where juvenile tigers and lions are trained by collar and leash to attack farm animals, then slaughtered once they have grown old or sick. Their meat is then served up in the park's restaurant, and their bones crushed and fermented into 500-yuan (HK$450) bottles of wine brewed and sold on the premises with an official export certificate.

This medieval cycle of life and death starts immediately visitors have paid their 80-yuan admission fee. Just beyond the turnstiles, they are greeted by the resident "fisherman". For 10 yuan, he will bait a bamboo fishing pole with a live chicken or duck and demonstrate how to dangle it head-first into a pit full of tigers. Pole-bearers jostle for position as children and onlookers squeal with delight at each tease and catch. The young tigers rip the chickens and ducks to shreds, fighting over every carcass.

But this is just a teaser for the main event. Twice each day, a loudspeaker announces the "wildness training" spectacle, and the eager crowds file past a pen full of suckling lion cubs and their surrogate lactating dog-mothers, to the grey coliseum on the other side of the park. Hungry tigers await.

Hungry tigers are not what you see first. A sign at the entrance warns against "children and those with weak hearts" entering as the live feeding "necessary to the tiger's survival in the wilderness . . . nevertheless contains a certain brutality". No-one stops to read. Inside the dank, cold concrete arena the tigers pace their cages below while the punters laugh and smoke and take their seats upstairs. A placid calf stands tethered to an iron gate, brown eyes impassive. It will have to wait its turn.

Dancing girls twirling boa constrictors add an air of frivolity to the start of the show. But this is not what people have paid to see, and when a small pig is dumped unceremoniously into the centre of the arena and the first juvenile tiger let out of its cage, there is expectant silence - then boos of disappointment as the cat ignores its prey, instead going straight to its neighbouring felines in their cages. The pig makes the first move. With poignant naïveté and no hint of fear, it approaches the cat which suddenly
turns, pounces and starts tearing at its neck.

The pig squeals and the spectre of death looms. But this is no death. The crowd cheers as the cat mauls and toys with its prey. It does not know how to kill, and indeed has no reason to do so: the pig is not going anywhere and the tiger is not particularly hungry, perhaps relishing its only chance to relieve the boredom of being locked up. It drags the still-squealing pig back into its cage to play with it.

The crowd shows its appreciation by laughing, spitting and dropping burning cigarette butts on the caged tigers below.

It is the calf's turn, and this time there is no hesitation. A big, lean, full-grown cat is let loose and goes straight for the throat. The young calf mews and cries, kicking at the tiger, struggling to remain on its feet, urinating and defecating across the concrete floor as the big cat subdues its prey, then begins to tear its flesh, eating it alive as it bellows in agony.
 
A front-end loader suddenly disrupts the proceedings, entering the arena to chase the cat back into its cage. It scoops up first the pig, then the calf - both bleeding profusely but still alive - and removes them to an abattoir behind the main coliseum. Death comes at human hands via a blow to the head and a sharp knife to the throat. The carcasses are cut up and fed to the other cats.

Leaving the bloodied arena to the sound of laughter, visitors then approach one of the park's open enclosures. Inside are a number of albino Siberian tigers. A sign in Chinese and English describes them as "The White Tiger from North America, Japan and Australia".

A park official, asked where she understands the animals originate, answers helpfully: "These are from Australia. They cost 300 yuan each."  "There are no tigers in Australia. Except in zoos."
"Oh. Well you've probably never seen them there because they are white - they're very hard to see in the snow."

Next to the "Australian" tigers are the Bengals. Another sign says they are from "Bangladesh, Italy". The lack of knowledge brings into question the level of experience of the park's "experts", who told Ms Robinson during her visit last year that they had six south China tigers, four Bengal tigers, 60 Siberian tigers, 130 Asiatic black bears, one brown bear, 19 African lions, one clouded leopard and one golden cat.

Ms Robinson suspects that despite owner Mr Zhou's claim that the aim is to release the animals into the wild, they are wanted for a far more grisly end. One of the first things Ms Robinson and Mr Chiao discovered during their visit was the illegal sale of tiger wine.

"While the park claims it is breeding the tigers for eventual release, we haven't seen any evidence of this," Ms Robinson said. "All they've done is trained them to kill livestock and get used to human contact - a sure recipe for disaster in the wild. Yet there hasn't even been a nature reserve allocated to them. Certainly they are not being released into the wild and some, I shudder to say, probably find their way into the bottom of a wine bottle."

She said that according to local villagers, three tigers a month were culled for such trade. A "museum" inside the park grounds doubles as a distillery and sales outlet for tiger-bone, bear bile and gall-bladder rice wines and other products. The tiger wine is sold in a black box labelled simply as "Restorative Bone Wine" for 500 yuan a bottle. Sales staff insist it is made from tiger bones, though for legal reasons cannot be sold as such. Instead, doubtful buyers are led to a back room and shown earthenware wine pots containing tiger skulls to allay their disbelief. Each bottle comes with an official export certificate. If visitors prefer, they can try it by the glass in the park's restaurant which, according to Ms Robinson, also serves tiger-meat dishes.

Endangered black Asiatic bears are much sought after for the reputed tonic properties of their gall- bladders and bile. The park shows them in a motorcycle high-wire act, a mock "bear wedding" and a bicycle race in which baby black bears are whipped to the finish line.

Tiger Mountain's days may be numbered, but similar animal shows are unlikely to end with it. At least four similar parks are in operation on the mainland.

LIVE FEEDING OF TIGERS "TO GO ON"
Sunday Morning Post - Cortlan Bennett - December 5^th 1999-12-10

A Guilin game park which feeds live animals to tigers as a tourist attraction is unlikely to end its barbaric activities soon, despite a government investigation and repeated warnings to stop.
The Xiongsheng Bear and Tiger Mountain Village is partly owned by a Hong Kong businessman.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will meet Beijing State Forestry Administration officials tomorrow to urge tougher laws. The fund says the park will continue the live feedings and open sale of endangered species products until new legislation is enacted.
Present laws only provide protection for endangered species in the wild.
China Wildlife Conservation Association chief Huang Jianhua flew to the park last week after a Sunday Morning Post investigation revealed the shows were being watched by hundreds of jeering onlookers.
"Retired" big cats and bears are then served up in the park's restaurants, washed down with illegal tiger-bone and bear gall-bladder wine.
Unlabelled bottles of wine are produced illegally and sold at the park for 500 yuan (HK$450) with official export certificates.
IFAW China conservation director Grace Gabriel said she was told too much money was at stake for the Guilin Government-backed park to close one of its biggest local attractions.
"After Mr Huang returned to Beijing, he told us the situation was more complicated than we first thought," Ms Gabriel said.
"It seems the park is part-owned by the Guilin Tourism Authority, which has invested very heavily in it and is reluctant to give up one of its biggest attractions.
"Tourism is Guilin's main commercial activity. So while there has been a concerted effort at central Government level to put an end to these cruel live feedings, the provincial Government continues to flout its directives.
"And with the exception of selling endangered species products - which is entirely illegal under Chinese and international law - the park can continue because there are no solid laws providing for the protection of captive animals, regardless of whether they are endangered or not."
The park is also owned by Hong Kong businessman Zhou Weisen under a locally registered company, Handsome Wild Life Farming and Development.
Mr Zhou was not at his Shamshuipo home and could not be contacted, but his wife who refused to be named, and documents lodged with the companies register confirmed he was the director.
According to his Hong Kong office, the park-produced tiger and bear wine is not for sale in the territory.

Click on a photo to view it:

PUSHING BEEF IN CHINA  
NYT  December 28, 1999

The World Bank's Aim: Beef for China

By NEAL D. BARNARD

     The World Bank has proved again that the pen is mightier than the sword. The sword -- in this case a scythe harvesting the grains that have kept the Chinese free of the diet-related health problems      plaguing Westerners -- was defeated last week when, with the stroke of a pen, the World Bank signed off on a $93.5 million loan to build 130 feedlots and five processing centers for China's nascent beef industry.
    
     The World Health Organization would have had it differently. Its igures show that the traditional Chinese diet, rich in rice and vegetables, with little meat and virtually no dairy products, has kept heart disease and myriad other Western health problems at arm's length. An improved food distribution network has eliminated the shortages suffered by some other Asian countries. Today, per capita food intake is actually higher in China than in the United States. Unfortunately, steak, fast food and cheese have started to replace traditional rice and noodle dishes in some regions even without the World Bank's help. Those areas have shown the highest incidence of Western-style medical problems.
    
     While smart Americans recognize the need to "Easternize" their own diets with rice, soy products and more vegetarian options, World Bank bureaucrats decided to promote a Westernization of China's diet. Instead of supporting the use of grain as a cholesterol-free dietary staple for people, the grain will be fed to cattle to produce meat.
    
     This practice promotes not just poor health, but also the inefficient use of food. Kilo after kilo of grain proteins fed to cattle yield only one-tenth this amount of protein in meat.
    
     Of course, the World Bank's efforts to promote cattle farming in China are concerned less with good health than with economic investment. No doubt some cattle ranchers will profit, as they edge out vegetable and rice acreage. But why is the World Bank, so roundly criticized over for years for its self- defeating economic development schemes, falling into the same old trap?
    
     Neal D. Barnard is president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

EXPORT OF ZOO ANIMALS FROM USA TO CHINA  

BAN SEEKS TO PROTECT WILD BIRDS  

The State Forestry Administration has imposed a ban on the hunting and selling of migratory birds, particularly rare and endangered species.

The agency's action comes after repeated reports of hunters using poison to capture birds.

The ban also prohibits purchasing and exporting wild birds.

The ban will be in effect for at least three months. In conjunction with the ban, police, marketing administration agencies and customs have launched a crackdown on those exploiting migratory and wild birds.

"The illegal catching, selling, purchasing and smuggling of wild birds, especially, migratory birds - either netted or poisoned - by unlawful people has been a serious problem," said a source close to the State Forestry Administration. "Birds are moving from the cold North to warmer wetlands or habitats in the South."

Instances of illegal catching and trading of migratory birds have been reported in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Hunan, Yunnan and Guangdong and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sources said.

Seven red-crowned cranes, a rare bird that the State has named a protected species, were shot and killed in Sheyang County in South China's Jiangsu Province last month, said a China Wildlife Conservation Association inspector.

There are only about 2,000 red-crowned cranes in the world. A little more than half of them live in a reserve in Yancheng in Jiangsu Province in the winter.

A few weeks ago, a "death belt" 3,000 metres long and 50 metres wide was discovered in Yancheng State Reserve for rare wild birds, the inspector disclosed. It was filled with poisoned bait.

Following the discovery of the death belt, four teams from the China Wildlife Conservation Association rushed to the wetlands in Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai to supervise efforts to protect migratory birds.

Date: 12/15/1999
Author: LIANG CHAO , China Daily staff
Copyright© by China Daily



FUJIAN EATS ITS WAY THROUGH RARE BREEDS  

When a waiter asks a diner in East China's Fujian Province if they want
their meat rare or not, misunderstandings can arise.

A survey has discovered that more than half the province's restaurants and
hotels are serving up rare breeds of animals and birds, in defiance of the
country's wildlife protection laws.

On the menus are ''delicacies'' like alligator, spinal frog and wild boar.

Around six out of 10 people in the province have eaten endangered or rare
creatures, a survey conducted by the Wildlife Protection Association of
Fujian Province discovered.

The survey is based on interviews with 2,195 people and 223 restaurants and
hotels from five major cities across the province.

More than 35 per cent of those questioned did not know national wildlife
protection laws existed.

Over 50 per cent of those questioned, most of them from the mountainous
Sanming region, believed some wild creatures, such as wild boar and spinal
frog, were highly nutritious and crucial to good heath.

Almost 30 per cent of those asked in the east of the province and in the
tourist cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen, admitted eating wildlife out of
curiosity. Around 14 per cent eat the rare dishes to show off their money or
their social status.

But scientific research shows that animals and birds bred in captivity have
the same nutrition value as those caught in the wild. Scientists also say
that wild creatures carry more than 100 kinds of insidious infectious
diseases and parasites.

Wang Fuxing, secretary of the China Association of Wildlife Protection, says
the situation of wildlife protection in China is urgent and grim, though
much progress has been made.

The Fujian survey found some rare birds and animals supposedly protected at
national level, such as sika, ostrich and alligator, are sold openly at food
markets in Fujian.


Date: 12/22/1999 Author: GUO NEI , China Daily staff  Copyright© by China Daily




CHINESE SPARROWS  
Date: Monday, January 24, 2000 5:38 AM
Subject: FW: Sparrows -- a matter of perspective
A Bird Lover in China Tries
Rehabilitating an Old Enemy
By IAN JOHNSON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BEIJING -- Gazing out into the faint winter light, Zheng Guangmei
spots one of his favorite sights: a tiny brown sparrow, hopping along the snowy
path beneath his apartment window.
Sparrows are among the most common birds in the world, and once could
be found across China. But about 40 years ago, they became victims of a
bizarre political campaign that labeled them a class enemy and led to their
systematic extermination. That, combined with break-neck industrialization,
has left huge swaths of China barren of the hardy bird.
Rehabilitating the humble sparrow has become the life's work of Mr.
Zheng, a 67-year-old bird-watcher with a quiet voice and a broad smile. His
work is his penance for failing to defend the bird; as he recalls his complicity, a
frown comes over him and his eyes begin to water.
Don't Shoot!
In 1958, Mr. Zheng (pronounced JUNG), a newly hatched ornithologist,
started working with Soviet experts sent to bolster China's rudimentary university
system. His first lesson was to give up the Chinese practice of shooting the birds to study them; instead, he learned to observe birds in the wild, taking careful notes about their markings, behavior and environment.
While Mr. Zheng's career took off, China's fortunes plummeted. The Communist
Party launched a disastrous program of crash industrialization that led to famine and the deaths of as many as 30 million people. Deciding to remake China's ecology, the party vowed to rid China of sparrows. The spurious science of Marxism had deemed sparrows "harmful birds," since they ate grain and thus were inimical to the peasant-based utopia the Communists wanted to build.
In a massive campaign that lasted just three days, the party mobilized millions of Chinese to parade through cities, villages and fields, beating drums and setting off fireworks. Too nervous to perch, the sparrows fell exhausted to the ground, where they were bludgeoned. Birdbaths were laced with toxic chemicals and feeders filled with rat poison. Bird
carcasses littered China's streets.
Ornithologists like Mr. Zheng were pressed into service. Top officials decided that their underlings had to prove they had met their kill quota by bringing in bundles of bird legs. So Mr. Zheng sat in a room counting claws and writing reports.
Most of the legs belonged to sparrows, but Mr. Zheng's trained eyes noticed that huge numbers of other birds had been killed as well, including woodpeckers, swallows, egrets, ducks and swans. "We thought the party knew what it was doing and so we helped kill the sparrows, millions of them," Mr. Zheng says.
With the skies strangely silent, the party declared its fowl purge a success.
Mr. Zheng, though, was shattered by the experience and returned home vowing to make amends.
His first act was to fight for the sparrows' rehabilitation. The Communists had based their campaign on a turgid pamphlet called "Outline of Agricultural Development," which listed sparrows as one of four rural "pests," along with locusts, rats and mosquitoes. Mr. Zheng wrote a memo to the agriculture bureau with a startlingly revisionist view, arguing that in the birds' absence insects had multiplied. A year later, the bureau agreed to replace the sparrow on its hate list with the hapless bedbug. 
Over the next decade, as the sparrow population started to recover, Mr. Zheng figured he had won his war. He used his free time to study sparrows and wrote the first article in Chinese on the bird's habitat and behavior.
But the sparrow is in danger once again, this time from the mix of prosperity and lawlessness that have accompanied the past 20 years of economic reform.
Farmers are now allowed to plant what they want, leading to a burst of agricultural production, but pesticides such as DDT are used freely. The result: Sparrows, which do like to eat modest amounts of grain along with insects, have been eradicated from several provinces, including Fujian and Anhui.
Other hazards abound. Deforestation has eliminated natural habitats, and rising living standards have allowed people to indulge in delicacies such as grilled sparrow. Sanctuaries have turned into hunting grounds, as poachers bribe officials to look the other way. In the Chongming Island bird reserve outside Shanghai, half the 200 species of birds have been wiped out by poachers during the past decade, with 50,000 birds -- many of them sparrows -- killed each year, according to local officials.
'All Are in Trouble'
"The sparrow should have rebounded since the 1950s, but it hasn't," Mr. Zheng
says as he leafs through a book of his lovingly rendered sparrow sketches.
"Tree sparrows, mountain sparrows, black-breasted sparrows, even house sparrows -- all are in trouble." And so, Mr. Zheng continues his fight in the unlikeliest of causes, working
out of his small apartment on a Beijing university campus. Inspired by photos of sparrows hung on the white-washed concrete walls of his living room, Mr. Zheng has become a modern-day activist, using the Internet and e-mail to set up the 600-member China Ornithological Society. His followers, including graduate students he advises, document and crusade against the use of DDT in China, which has been officially banned.
Mr. Zheng's volunteers have also alerted China's increasingly assertive media about illegal bird markets, where rare species are sold to restaurants that serve exotic animals to nouveaux riches. And he's bringing the 23rd International Ornithological Congress to Beijing in 2002, a meeting he hopes will raise awareness among officials and help make wildlife protection a national priority. Besides sparrows, Mr. Zheng also monitors 182 endangered bird species. His heart, though, still aches for the most common of birds. "If they can't survive here," he says, "what can?"

2. JAPAN

ANIMAL PROTECTION ACT PASSED 

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/

Dec 15,1999

Yomiuri Shimbun

The law concerning the protection and control of animals was
revised Tuesday, for the first time in 26 years, as the current
extraordinary Diet session nears its close, permitting authorities to
fine, or even imprison, those who mistreat, kill or abandon their
pets.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, which was in charge of
revising the law, an increasing number of lost or unwanted pets are
being put down with gas at local government animal shelters. Last
fiscal year, 467,000 dogs and cats were put down.

"We have so many animals that are brought in by citizens, it's
simply impossible to continue keeping them here until they die of
natural causes," said Miwako Fujisawa, a veterinarian with the
Tokyo municipal government animal shelter in Setagaya Ward.

A total of 18,000 animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks and
chickens were taken to Tokyo's five animal shelters last fiscal year.

Of these, 14,000 were brought in by residents, including pet owners turning
over their pets.

At the shelter, the dogs are kept in glass-partitioned kennels for up
to one week before being taken to a facility in Jonanjima, Ota Ward, near
Tokyo Bay, where they are put down. Many of the dogs are wearing collars;
most are mongrels, but there are also pedigree dogs, such as golden
retrievers, at the shelter.

"Some come in quite sick," said Fujisawa, pointing to an old dog
suffering from what appears to be a serious skin disease.
"Perhaps the dog didn't receive adequate treatment."

The dogs are transferred from one glass cage to another each day, while
waiting for either their owner or someone else to come to their rescue. When
they reach the sixth cell, they have come to the end of the line--they will
be put down the next day.

According to a survey three years ago of 367 former pet owners who brought
their dogs in, 30 percent responded that they did so because they were
moving.

While 10 percent of the owners responded that their own health
problems prevented them from looking after their pets any longer,
the majority said they gave them up because they were either receiving
complaints from neighbors or had become tired of keeping them.

Using gas to kill animals is an internationally recognized method,
and is considered humane because the animals' nerves are numbed before death
and they die almost instantaneously.

The animals are placed in a stainless steel chamber two meters long, 1.5
meters wide and 1.3 meters high and the gas is then pumped into the chamber.

Veterinarians monitor the deaths of the animals through a camera
installed in the box. When it is over, they confirm that the animals
are dead by checking for a heartbeat.

"The law allows human beings to kill these animals, no matter what
the reason," Takeshi Hayano of the Jonanjima facility said.

"People are eager to own pets, but they do not take responsibility
for them. I think that those in the pet business who see the animals
simply as commercial goods when they are in fact living things should also
be punished by the law."

Copyright 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Send feedback to:
webmaster@yomiuri.co.jp

Note from Masako Miyaji:

Just a quick note to let you know that today (12/14) the amendment of the
Japanese animal protection law was finally passed at the final deliberation
body (the main committee of the Upper House).

It IS an improvement of the original one, which was enacted 26 years ago.
But so many issues were left out-most importantly animal experiments. And
the collateral clause for the revision in three years has somehow been
modified to FIVE years in the process of the deliberation.

Thank you for all your support during our campaign and I will let you the
details as soon as I get them.

Masako Miyaji
for everyone here.

3. KOREA

DOG BILL - DISCARDED FOR NOW  
The notorious dog bill has been decided not to be discussed in the congress as of December13 in South Korea.
Thanks to the many people who fought for the dog bill abroad.
the bill to butcher dog has been decided not to be discussed in the congress anymore as of December 13 by the sub-committee members on Agriculture, Maritime affairs and Fisheries. This means the bill is automatically discarded by the next election, when the congressional term terminates.
As I talk to the official in Congress in charge of the bill, the sub-committee has decided to discard the bill as this bill raises unnecessary issues, brings too many objections from within and outside the country.  Most of congressmen in the subcommittee agreed not to discuss the bill.
So far, many prestigious leaders and famous figures in south Korea joined the petition so far. For example, Mihie Chang, the famous film star, and Il Kim, the former world pro-wrestling champion, joined the campaign as staff against the dog bill when several animal organizations were told by the congress members to wait to file the petition as the subcommittee is going to seriously consider discarding the bill.
Professor Changkil Park,
Korean Alliance to Prevent Cruelty to Animals.

THE CATS ALSO ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE

Letter from Korea Animal Protection Society - Please help by writing a letter!

Dear Animal Friends,
Cats are generally not considered as pets in Korea. Koreans
typically regard cats as evil and worthy of hatred, but, none the less,
healthy to eat. Tame cats are boiled alive and feral/stray cats are killed
by bashing them in a bag and then boiled to make medicinal juice.
I am once again appealing to you for help, this time for the feral cats of
Korea who are now the target of a vicious extermination crusade.
For three years the Korea Animal Rescue and Management Association (KARMA)
has spread its anti-cat propaganda campaign throughout the Korean media.
KARMA, previously known as Korea Animal Rescue Association (KARA), is
claiming that feral cats pose a threat to humans, livestock, endangered
species and the environment and must be eradicated before they spread
malaria, toxoplasmosis and other infectious diseases.
In early 1998, KARA/KARMA accepted a grant from Seoul City to get rid of
feral cats living on Nam Mountain in Seoul City. Now, hunters and trappers
work day and night to shoot cats outright or trap them live for sale to
ignorant "health" seekers who liquefy the cats as a "remedy" for arthritis
and other ailments. The unbearable agony these cats suffer is intolerable.
In mid-December of 1999, the Korea Broadcasting System aired a program
produced by KARMA and the Chosunilbo Daily Newspaper, which attempts to
portray feral cats as vicious, diseased and predatory through a pseudo
documentary format. The program ends with one of the feral cats trapped for
the show being eaten by other feral cats in a cage at KARMA. I have no doubt
that KARMA starved these animals until they had no choice but to eat another
of their own kind.
Please send a letter to the Ministry of the Environment demanding: 1. the
Ministry change its law defining cats as vermin; 2. Allocate funds
specifically for the protection (including spay/neuter) of feral cats; 3.
Allocate funds for a program to educate the public about the integral role
of cats in the web of life.

Other Points to Keep in Mind:
1. Destroying the cat population will increase the rat population, which can
pose a threat of disease to humans and other animals
2. More developed countries such as Japan, the United States and England
recognize the "web of life" which holds all species as interdependent and
necessary for the health of any ecosystem. These countries also recognize
the loving and friendly nature of domestic cats and consider them companions
protected by national animal welfare laws.
3. Dr. Soo Il Lee of the Natural Science Research Center in Kyoungsang Namdo
province is studying the ecosystem of Jiri Mountain. He attributes the
destruction of that ecosystem to the illegal hunting of badgers, raccoon
dogs, otters, sable, and feral cats. From his study Dr. Lee also confirms
the encroachment of humans on this habitat to be a serious threat to the
natural food sources of the local wildlife. Dr. Lee specifically says feral
cats are NOT responsible for habitat destruction.
I hope you will write this very important letter at your earliest
convenience.
The cats of Korea desperately need your help now.

Address to write
Minister Kim Myoung Ja
Ministry of Environment
1 Joongang-dong
Kwachun City, Kyoungki-do
South Korea, 427-760
Email: mjkim@me.go.kr

With hope for the animals,
Kyenan Kum
Email: ifkaps@msn.com
http://www.koreananimals.org
P.S. If you would like a copy of this video and English-language transcript,
or if you have any questions, please contact me anytime.

==========================================================
Sports Today Daily News
December 99

"AGGRAVATES ANIMAL CRUELTY" PROTEST POURING FROM VIEWERS
KBS 1 TV "ENVRIONMENT SPECIAL- COUNTER ATTACK OF FERAL CATS" CAUSES A STIR

There has been a strong reaction to KBS 1TV program Environment Special
Documentary - "Counter Attack of Feral Cats" which aired on December 15th
1999. There have been continuous protests by viewers ever since broadcasting

this program which concentrated on cats' negative side.

"It sounds like cats are spreading AIDS disease if you don't know about
cats." "I am worried many will throw cats out." "The pigeon population is
increasing and yet there is worry about cats eating pigeons?" "Feral cats
are not going to purr in your lap when you cage them. Whose idea is it to
tame feral cats"

Sunnan Kum, Chairwoman of Korea Animal Protection Society who cares for 260
stray cats sent a letter of petition to the Minister of Environment. Sunnan
Kum criticized that "Since 1996, Korea Animal Rescue and Management
Association (KARMA/KARA) and local governments have been campaigning to
terminate feral/stray cats and that has been causing extreme cruelty to
cats in Korea and this documentary spreads even more wrong information and
ignorance about cats."

In fact, one local government has been trapping and killing cats in order to
prevent feral cats from harming people and to control the feral cat
population.

Jang Hae Rang, the Producer of "Counterattack of Feral Cats", states that he
believed that we should not leave feral cats alone, that we need to deal
coldly with their propagation, lifestyle and impacts and that he still
believes he is right.

Reporter Shin Dong Rip

================================================================

Translation (partial) of an open email letter from a student after their
having seen an "Environment Special" program, a documentary on Feral/ Stray
cat, entitled "Counter Attack of Feral Cats" by KBS (Korean Broadcasting
Service) TV aired on Dec. 15, 1999

Dec. 25, 1999 (12:53) from 203.245.15.12' Article Number : 362
Park, Mi Hyun (artcat@sbsmail.net) Access :58, Lines 23

Environment Special "Counter attack of Producer Chang, Hae Rang"

KBS would not give one damn iota about me writing to them again and again,
and the more I think about the program the more I am getting enraged. How
could they even name it an "Environment Special" documentary? This
documentary, made by the Korean Broadcasting Company, operating under the
government with the people's tax money, does not even measure up to basic
standards required to be a documentary...
This is incredible and I can not believe it even thought I knew producers'
intelligence levels are bottom line.... Frankly, KBS lacks the
qualifications to make a documentary on animals.

Omit....

"Counter Attack of Feral Cats" 'Counter attack' you gotta like it...they
attack cats who are trying hard to survive. Who's attacking whom? And
what...? Is this program to educate people to respect living beings? I am
pleading with you to show me the process of making this documentary. Is it
really cats killing another cat and eating it? Or to make that kind of
scene, where these cats left to starve and then tuna fish liquid brushed on
the weak dying cat... And is it impossible tame the feral cat? Shouldn't
taming animal should done with love? How in the
hell one can expect to tame these animals while imprisoning them in a cage
on the concrete floor without proper feeding and care? They just expect
things to happen without giving anything? I have adopted 5 stray/feral cats
and do you expect they will eat each other, ha? And hiss and attack people
with claws? My cats were also feral cats. You should video tape my cats if
you want to show how to tame cats instead of placing cats in a shitty place
like KARA/KARMA resulting in horrible deaths.

Even if a mishap happened like that then you should explain how it happened
but claiming that cats kill and eat each other because they so
aggressive??????? So absurd!!! You know why? Because KARA(KARMA, even though
they get donations from us to buy cat food, lets them starve, that's why.
Did they know any characteristics or have any basic knowledge of cats before
they made this documentary?
Instead they should have made a documentary investigating KARA(KARMA)'s
corruption.
What is going on between KARA and KBS? Why did KARA let KBS take video
pictures of KARA while not letting them take pictures of any of us or anyone
else. Did KARA receive something from KBS?

Korea Animal Rescue and Management Association, do they really rescue and
manage animals? How poorly managed the animals must have been for this kind
of tragedy to have happen. If they are supposed to help animals, then how
could they cooperate with KBS to produce this kind of program? Two thieves
need a chemistry if they going to success with stealing but this is two
stupid thieves stealling something but unable to get over the fence.

It is an Animal Rescue and Management Association or it is an Animal
Termination Association????? Or is it a Cat Termination Association....
KBS should, instead, investigate this KARA and should make a documentary to
reveal
how these animals at KARA live miserably? Are they saying that all cats
should be terminated and that cats are not worth while to live or rescue? To
benefit whom? Is this world only for people? Frankly why should they worry?
They are not eating people?

Honestly,I hope to expose KARMA and KBS, to the international animal
organizations, and let them destroy these two groups.


================================================================

Refere
Translation (partial) of an open email letter from a student after their
having seen an "Environment Special" program, a documentary on Feral/ Stray
cat, entitled "Counter Attack of Feral Cats" by KBS (Korean Broadcasting
Service) TV aired on Dec. 15, 1999


1999/12/16 (23:17) from 147.47.178.11 of 147.47.178.11 Article Number : 209
Mimi () Access : 70, Lines : 114

Environment Special. Extreme ignorance.. Production team should realize.

I can not express how much I was outraged, with the bloody tears of anger,
after viewing the program. I have calmed down a little now. Where is the
email address of the producer? Do you think that your program will be a hit
if you make a trashy, sensational program without any objectivity?

Did KBS TV really think that that kind of program could be aired without
being shamefully criticized? Feral cats were cruelly murdered, just because
there were many of them, and the cats that were not killed were sent to a
cat Auschwitz, where the so called Korea Animal Rescue Association would
kill them slowly ( the bastard staff of KARA let cats starve even though the
Hitelnet Cat Club members diligently went there to volunteer), while talking
proudly about what they did. The people who made this program have to be
called scum.

If this program aired abroad, Korea's image would certainly come across as
terrible. How they could broadcast of scenes of hunting dog chasing after
cats and killing them? They think they are doing good? How could they
(local governments) let professional illegal hunters trap cats, even
encouraging them by helping these illegal hunters make money?

KBS TV must be rich. It took a lot of money and several months to make this
program and to edit it into an emotional, biased, and cheap sensation to
attract viewers.

"Producer, do not make this kind of program ever again. You can't have any
brains or talent to have made this kind of documentary program, so give up
and just make cheap third class porno movies, because you do at least know
how to make excitable and sensational trash. You know nothing about cats,
how could you talk about cats like that? If you want to give knowledge to
the public, you must learn and study. I am a graduate student who studies
environmental science and I know that ignorant governments can not protect
the environment and ecosystem with stupid policies. The cat massacre of Nam
Mountain shows how the cruel government policy can be.
Omit..

I would really like to see a decent documentary on how cats (whose survival
rate is only 50 %) survive desperately among environmentally destructive
people and, by their
example, teach us how to protect our environment.
Omit..

I cried so much with anger while seeing that program. We need to reduce
environmental and natural destruction by people, and to stop completely
illegal hunting. Omit..
The most dangerous creature is humans not animals. In that program, there
was a graphic of a pyramid of a food chain and on top was a stray/feral cat.
Then where is the dog who kills cats and where should people be. Are people
so high and mighty that people should not be in this food pyramid? It is so
obvious that this program was produced to fit a preconceived conclusion to
encourage the massacre of cats. I never again want to watch that kind of
poor quality program on KBS. I know that many members of my Hitelnet Cat
Club has sent letters of protest and I have heard that other animal net
clubs are going to send letters as well.
Omit..
Please retract the positions taken on your program. I do not think cats
could cause people so much harm. If cats were to completely disappear in
Korea, how would people be harmed? People would not be able to control
overpopulating rats; then you are going to make a documentary on
exterminating rats?

"Please contact us at Hetelnet, Cat Club room SG498, if you have misgivings
about cat, after seeing the KBS program, or you just don't know about cats
much or you want to share your knowledge about cats." Any of you who saw
that program, please do not believe any of twisted lies it told about cats.

Still enraged Mimi

========================================================

The translation of the news article
September 10, 1997 Gukmin Ilbo Daily News

Following Bull-frogs, "Battle With Feral Cats"

Mountain animals suffer and cats cause car accidents
KARA to capture cats from January next year on a large scale

"Following the problems with Bull-frogs, we declare a battle against wild
cats this time."

The Korea Animal Rescue Association (KARA) recently announces that the wild
cats living in the Nam Mountains National Park pose a threat to wildlife by
eat anything, including squirrels and birds. In response, KARA will start
capturing cats from January of next year.

KARA became interested in the wildcat problem as the population of wild
birds and animals in Nam Mountain Park apparently diminished.

In cooperation with the National Park management, KARA estimated that cats
were abandoned by their owners at rate of almost 10 a day. Cats, of course,
can adapt easily to living in the wilds around the mountains and KARA
believes the cats consume more that 2000 different wild animals a year.
KARA and the National Park management felt that if they neglected this
problem, the wild life would be destroyed.

Cats also are responsible for the widespread transmission of malaria, and in
addition people complain that they make loud noises and cause car accidents
at night.

In order to catch cats, KARA will bill the government an estimated Korean
won 150,000,000 (approximately US$130,000) for using equipment at 18 sites
around the Bukhan Mountains and 7 sites around the Nam Mountains. After
being captured, the cats will be caged at an animal protection center in
YangJu County, which will be completed this December. It is hoped that
citizens and foreigners will adopt kittens from the cats.

4. THAILAND

The Worldwide Millennium Vegetarian Pledge was placed in a time capsule in Hyde Park London on 31st December 1999 :
"We hereby pledge to bring about a 21st century in which the human race will finally make peace with the animal kingdom.  Human beings will no longer kill, maim, torture or exploit fellow sentient beings for food or other purposes. Animals will have fundamental rights which will be internationally recognized.

"It is clear beyond any doubt that the survival of the human race depends upon the survival of the forests and other natural resources and of the animals with whom we share this planet. We pledge to protect all of them.

"We oppose the introduction of animal genes into plant foods.

"The human race will reach the pinnacle of civilization when it extends the hand of friendship to the animal kingdom and returns to the healthy plant-based diet best suited to the moral and physical needs of our species, thus avoiding the related evils of animal exploitation, human starvation and environmental destruction.

"At the close of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, let us make a tryst with destiny to create a world free of violence towards all living beings who are dependent on our love and compassion.  Together let us embark on that journey which will bring about a world in which all animals are treated with compassion and mercy and accorded rights that human beings take for granted."