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- BEIJING, China
(ENS) - The
Chinese government is drafting new regulations to ban the
feeding of live
animals to carnivores in wildlife parks and breeding
centers. The live
animal feeding brought revenue into the wildlife
parks as spectators paid
to witness cows, pigs and chickens eaten
alive.
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- The
government statement was made after the exposure
of abuse of animals in
the Xiongshen Bear and Tiger Entertainment City
in Guilin, China. An
investigation by the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF)
revealed that park
owners were routinely feeding live cows and pigs to
captive tigers as
part of a wildlife spectacle.
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- "It was heartbreaking to see the badly injured ox
crying out in pain and struggling to its feet time after time, only to
be brought down again," said Jill Robinson, AAF founder, who
witnessed
the incident at Guilin park.
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- Visitors to the park could also
purchase live chickens
which were then tied onto poles and dropped into
the tiger and lion pits.
Videotape evidence shows many animals
suffering long and painful deaths.
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- Tiger at the Suzhou Zoo which
does not feed live animals
to its tigers. (Photo courtesy Tiger
Information Center) Endangered animals,
such as Asiatic black bears
were kept in debris filled pits.
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- Zhang Jianlong, director of the
Department of Wild Fauna
and Flora Conservation in the State Forestry
Administration, said all feeding
as entertainment had been
stopped.
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- The Chinese government move came after talks with directors
of
the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Animals Asia Foundation.
Zhang said further investigations of any illegal activity in the park will
be carried out, the two groups said in a joint statement.
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- The wildlife park was
also found guilty of openly selling
tiger bone wine and tiger meat,
which is a blatant violation of China's
Wildlife Law and a 1993
government ban forbidding the trade in tiger parts
and
products.
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- Grace Gabriel, IFAW's China director, said the practice
of
feeding live domestic animals to carnivores is cruel, lacks any scientific
base and has no education value. "Under the pretence of wildlife
training,
the parks' only goal is for profit," she said.
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- Live feeding
activities at Beijing Badaling Wild Animal
World generated an
international outcry earlier this year and prompted
China's president
Jiang Zemin to call for an end to the brutal practices
in that
park.
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- One
tourist quoted by the U.S. animal rights group People
for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals in their appeal against the practice
described his
visit as the "most exciting thing I have ever seen.
All the blood
everywhere. It was more exciting than Disneyworld."
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- Crowd watches animals
at a Chinese zoo. (Photos courtesy
Tiger Information Center) Feeding
time at Beijing Badaling Wild Animal
World centers around an
electrified, coliseum-style enclosure at the foot
of the Great Wall
where up to 600 people watch as domesticated calves are
led into a ring
to be killed and eaten by a pride of lions. The crowds,
which include
small children, cheer as the animals scream in agony.
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- Representatives from animal
protection organizations
who have visited the park report that when the
lions show a lack of interest
in the calves, park employees use a truck
to herd the calves toward the
pride in an attempt to trigger an attack.
Because the lions are captive,
their hunting skills are inadequate,
making the kill nothing more than
a prolonged game.
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- Chen Runsheng, deputy
general secretary of the China
Wildlife Conservation Association, a
government related organization, said
the government is strongly
against the cruel treatment of wild animals
and is also against the
live feeding of large animals. He emphasized that
"the Chinese
government stands by its pledge since 1993 to forbid
the trade of tiger
and rhino products.
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- Environment News Service (ENS) 1999.
- All Rights Reserved.
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