China Scene: West

Vulture stew no longer on the menu

Yang Huazhou, a retired teacher from Baoshan, Yunnan province, rescued two alpine vultures from the cooking pot recently.

Yang spotted a man selling the birds at a market on Feb 9 and wondered whether they might be protected animals and therefore not appropriate for cooking. Yang asked the man to release the birds but he refused, so he bought them for 400 yuan ($56) and called the police. Police took custody of the birds, and after a month of rehabilitation they were returned to nature.