Beijing bans selling songbirds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

 

 

Beijing bans selling songbirds

 

 

BEIJING--Trafficking in song thrushes and

six other bird species often kept as caged pets

is now banned throughout China, effective since

January 1, 2008.

Birds already in private possession may

remain with those who have them, but may not be

sold or traded.

The seven prohibited bird species, also

including parakeets, larks, and mynahs, were

reportedly the first additions since 1989 to the

Chinese list of protected wildlife.

" The aim is to try to save China's

dwindling numbers of birds, " reported Jane

Macartney, Beijing correspondent for the London

Times.

But while billed as a conservation

measure, the ban appears to have multiple goals,

including helping to protect the public from the

deadly avian flu H5N1, and comes as the Chinese

government appears to be experimentally inching

toward passage of long promised national humane

legislation.

A national humane law, rumored for more

than two years in official state media, is

expected to be formally introduced before the

2008 Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing this

summer.

Preliminary to the introduction, Beijing

and regional governments appear to be testing

public response to the enforcement of existing

laws that can protect animals. The enforcement

targets appear to be practices identified as

unacceptably cruel by public opinion research,

including surveys of 1,300 university students

done in 2002 and 2003 by Peter Li, Zu Shuxian,

& Su Pei-feng, whose findings appeared in the

May 2004 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE.

Keeping birds in cages was deemed

unacceptably cruel by 54% of the respondents in

both years. This was among the highest rates of

disapproval expressed toward any practices that

are both common and legal.

In a possibly parallel example,

Guangzhou bureau of forestry director Guo Qinghe

suppressed human consumption of cats during the

first weekend of November 2007 by announcing on

local television his intent to enforce a

four-year-old law against selling wildlife to

prohibit selling snakes.

Also billed as a conservation measure,

the law was originally directed at selling civets

and other mammals suspected as the host species

for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Using the

law to halt selling snakes in effect banned a

dish called " dragon fighting tiger, " which

combines snake and cat meat, and is believed to

be the most common manner of eating cats. Cats

have historically been eaten in Guangzhou since

circa 1350, but are rarely eaten anywhere else

in China.

Guo acted at a time when snake

trafficking was not controversial, but less than

a week before Guangzhou hosted the 2nd China

Companion Animal Symposium, hosted by the

Animals Asia Foundation, with 39 Chinese humane

organizations participating.

Official state media soon moved to

reinforce Guo's edict by depicting the snake

trade as socially unacceptable. Chen Hung of

China Daily prominently exposed snake smuggling,

asserting that snakes smuggled into Guangzhou are

sold primarily as pets. Sixty-seven of 106

snakes and lizards recently confiscated from one

trafficker were of globally protected species,

Chen Hung wrote.

Keeping caged birds and eating cats and

snakes were apparently not widely practiced in

the time of Confucious, who lived from 551 to

476 B.C., and outlined principles of government

that have been observed by most Chinese leaders

ever since. A central concept of Confucian rule

is that change should be introduced in

increments, each meant to reduce resistance to

the next.

" The custom of keeping birds dates back

as early as the Han dynasty of 206 B.C. to A.D.

220, " wrote Macartney, " when governors kept

their feathered pets in private gardens. In the

Tang dynasty, 618-907, the wealthy and the

scholars began to collect exotic birds brought

into China as tribute. The practice of catching

wild birds such as larks and orioles to keep in

captivity was introduced in the Song dynasty,

960-1270. The Manchu invaders who set up the

Qing dynasty, 1644-1911, popularised the

hobby. "

Before the current national bird trade

ban, Macartney noted, " The customers of the

trade were Beijing's more elderly residents.

Early in the morning in the capital's parks and

alleys, grey-haired men gathered around a

cluster of bird cages to chat and compare avian

talesŠOld men with their pet birds are a

quintessential feature of Beijing. Entire markets

have grown up selling bird paraphernalia such as

bamboo and wooden cages and tiny porcelain water

cups. "

While the State Council of China may be

taking advantage of increasing public opinion

against keeping caged songbirds, the prohibition

against selling them appears to be most directly

descended from a November 2006 State Council

recommendation that local governments should stop

permitting new live poultry markets in urban

areas, and to begin relocating existing live

poultry markets away from populated areas.

Hong Kong closed the Bird Garden market,

a longtime local landmark, in June 2007, after

a mynah sold at the market turned out to have

H5N1.

Other nations with long traditions of

keeping caged songbirds have been moving in the

same direction as China.

Kuwait, for example, in February 2007

closed markets selling live poultry and

songbirds, and banned all bird imports, after

H5N1 killed 20 falcons at the only zoo in the

country and 19 birds who were caged in private

yards. The live bird trade became suspect in

Kuwait in November 2005, following the discovery

of H5N1 in a dead flamingo who had been a

quasi-pet at a seaside villa.

Also in February 2007, H5N1 appeared at

the Moscow bird market in Russia, spreading to

six other parts of the city before it was

recognized. Russian national veterinarian

Nikolai Vlasov supervised the slaughter of about

1,400 birds who were confiscated from the bird

market, plus 200 other caged birds who had been

exposed to them.

Further H5N1 outbreaks killed several

hundred yard poultry at multiple sites in the

Moscow suburbs.

" We suspect that H5N1 was transported by

exotic birds who were illegally brought from

Azer-baijan, Iran, or from the Krasnodar

region, " in southern Russia, Vlasov told

Agence France-Presse.

--Merritt Clifton

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

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Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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