Public security bureau drafting guideline for wildlife trade ban

The Ministry of Public Security is working with judicial authorities to draft a guideline to better implement China's newly adopted decision to ban consumption of wild animals, an official of the ministry said on Thursday.

The guideline is being brewed up by the ministry, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Justice, aiming to carry out the decision made by the country's top legislature to completely ban eating wild animals and harshly crack down on the illegal wildlife trade, said Liu Xuejun, deputy director of the food and drug criminal investigation bureau under the Ministry of Public Security.

The decision, as an urgent legislative guarantee in the fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia made before amending the Wild Animal Protection Law, was passed at a bimonthly session of the top legislature -- the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress -- on Monday.

As it stressed all wildlife on the protection list of the existing Wild Animal Protection Law or other laws should be banned from consumption, the decision clarified all terrestrial wildlife, including those artificially bred and farmed, are also thus prohibited.

It also stipulated that hunting, trading and transportation of wild terrestrial animals for the purpose of consumption are also banned, and violators will face harsher punishments.

"It means a much stricter legal document has been established in our country, and it provides stronger legal weapons for police in cracking down on related crimes," Liu told media at a press conference on joint epidemic prevention and control in Beijing.

He said his ministry has arranged public security departments across the country to intensify efforts to fight wildlife-related crimes.

Since the epidemic swept the nation, Chinese police have filed 776 criminal cases and 1,804 administrative cases relating to wildlife, involving 2,556 people and the capture of 88,000 wild animals.