Ministry of Agriculture Responds on the Definition of Livestock and Poultry Versus Wildlife and New Measures to Crack Down on Illegal and Criminal Activities
Recently, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress voted to pass a decision fully prohibiting the illegal consumption and trade of wildlife. Regarding questions such as which are livestock and poultry and which are wildlife, and what new measures there are to crack down on wildlife-related illegal and criminal activities, the Ministry of Agriculture gave a detailed response at the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism press conference. Let's take a look at the specific situation below.
1. Which are livestock and poultry and which are wildlife?
Livestock and poultry mainly refer to various animals that humans have domesticated through long-term labor to meet needs for meat, eggs, milk, fur and so on. They differ greatly from wildlife, mainly in four points:
1. They have undergone long-term artificial rearing and are widely used in production;
2. Their phenotypes have undergone fundamental changes compared with wildlife, and they have stable artificially selected economic traits;
3. A stable disease prevention and control system has already been established;
4. They conform to international practice.
2. What new measures does China have for cracking down on wildlife-related illegal and criminal activities?
According to current laws and regulations such as the Criminal Law and the Wildlife Protection Law, public security organs mainly crack down in accordance with the law on crimes involving precious and endangered wildlife and wildlife with important ecological, scientific and social value. The recent Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress established a system fully prohibiting the consumption of wildlife, explicitly provided that illegal and criminal acts involving wildlife shall be subject to heavier penalties, and made explicit provisions fully prohibiting the hunting, trading and transport of terrestrial wildlife for the purpose of consumption.
This means China has established stricter wildlife laws and policies, providing public security organs with a more powerful legal weapon for cracking down on crime. To implement the Decision and relevant laws, the Ministry of Public Security is currently working with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice and other departments to carefully study and formulate guiding opinions on the application of relevant laws, and will deploy public security organs across the country to carry out special crackdown and rectification operations, effectively increasing the intensity of cracking down on wildlife-related criminal activities.
3. In what aspects are the strictest control measures for wildlife reflected?
1. After learning that experts assessed that wildlife such as bamboo rats and badgers may carry the novel coronavirus, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration promptly required all localities across the country to conduct comprehensive screening of the health status of workers and abnormal deaths or diseases of raised animals at more than 2,800 bamboo rat and badger breeding facilities.
2. It explicitly required all localities to implement lockdown and isolation for all wildlife artificial breeding sites, stop all activities such as putting wildlife on the market for trade and transport, and severely crack down on illegal hunting, business operation and utilization of wildlife.
3. Strengthen monitoring of wildlife sources and diseases, require a daily reporting system for abnormal deaths, illness and other circumstances of wildlife, and promptly handle any abnormal situations properly as required.
4. How to report the discovery of illegal or irregular wildlife trading or related clues?
Market regulation departments provide unified complaint and reporting services to the public through the national 12315 platform.
The above professional content comes from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.