Birds fly south to end up as dinner

GUANGZHOU: More than 10,000 migratory birds are being illegally slaughtered every day in Guangdong province and ending up on dinner tables.

The bodies of the birds, which annually fly from northern China to spend the winter in the tiny coastal Jijiazhen township in Leizhou peninsula, are cooked at local restaurants, or made into cured meat as special local products, according to a report from China News Service yesterday.

"Many of the birds being slaughtered are under the State's strict protection," a local resident surnamed Chen from the town's Beizai village was quoted as saying.