China outlaws eating exotic animals

PEOPLE who eat rare wild animals like giant pandas and golden monkeys will now face jail time, under new laws in China.

Endangered... Fewer than 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in China's Sichuan provi

CHINA has voted to approve a legal measure that will jail people caught eating rare wild animals.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) approved a new interpretation of China’s Criminal Law at a bimonthly session, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The report said that China’s government deems 420 species of wild animals as rare or endangered.

The animals include giant pandas, golden monkeys, Asian black bears and pangolins, the report said.

Under the legal interpretation passed on Thursday, people who eat animals on the list or purchase them for other purposes will be considered in violation of the Criminal Law.

Weird and wonderful... A Chinese pangolin.

Depending on the crime, violators could face more than 10 years in jail, the report added.

The killing of endangered animals and the use of their body parts - such as rhino horns and shark fins - in traditional medicine and as food delicacies has been identified as a global menace.

Demand from increasingly wealthy Asian consumers has been blamed for helping to fuel the trade.

The new interpretation of China’s law clarifies the role of people who purchase illegally hunted animals, the report added.

“It regulates that knowingly buying any wild animals that are prey of illegal hunting... will face a maximum three-year imprisonment,” Xinhua said.

Endangered... Fewer than 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in China's Sichuan province.

The report said that up to now, many people who bought such wild animals had avoided any punishment.

“In fact, buyers are a major motivator of large-scale illegal hunting,” Lang Sheng, deputy head of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, told reporters, according to Xinhua.