Those who seek to profit from protected species break the law

A MAN IN SHENZHEN, South China's Guangdong province, was recently given a five-year sentence and fined 3,000 yuan ($435) after he sold two parrots of an endangered species under State-level protection. Beijing News commented on Sunday:

Many bird lovers have a parrot and the habit of buying and selling their birds. And there are many kinds of parrots, not all of which are endangered species, so buying and selling parrots does not necessarily constitute a crime.

Thus the Shenzhen parrot lover apparently did not anticipate the legal consequences of selling six of his parrots, two of them an endangered species. He claimed he did not know the two parrots were endangered nor did he keep the parrots just to sell them. The man argued that he needed to sell the birds to make money to feed his family. But that does not justify his breaking law.