Migrating birds served on dinner tables in Guangdong
By admin on 2014-12-23

Thousands of migrating birds are served for dinner at restaurants in Jijia township, Guangdong Province, China News Service reported on Thursday.

Jijia is located on the west coast of the Leizhou Peninsula in the far east of the province. Tens of thousands of birds that migrate from northern China and Siberia fly to the province for the winter usually between November and July every year.

But fewer birds make it back to their natural homes and as a result, fewer are visiting the town after 10 coastal villages in the town started hunting and selling them in the 1990s, the report said.

Local hunters lure and trap the birds. It's become a local custom to hold bird banquets during weddings and send edible dried birds as gifts.

Nanfang Daily reported that most of the bird eaters are officials and businessmen.

"Moorhen is the most common bird we offer, it's 35 yuan ($5) for one. We can also get owls," a worker at a restaurant in Leizhou told the Global Times. "This is the season to taste birds. They are yummy."

Officials have launched raids into the trade.

Six bird traders were punished during the raid launched October 23, with 110 migrating birds confiscated, according to a report of Nanfang Daily October 27.

It was reported that 828 living migrating birds were set free October 24, and 18 restaurants and markets in Leizhou were cleaned October 26.

However, things returned to normal two days later.

"It won't be solved thoroughly as it has been there for many years," an official surnamed Liang from the Leizhou Forestry Bureau told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The 'cat and mouse game' between government and bird traders has been playing," Chen Xiaojiang, a local resident, told the newspaper.

A restaurant staff said those serving bird receive tip-offs from informants before raids.

Professor Huang Huijian from the Institute of South China Endangered Animals of the Academy of Sciences of Guangdong Province said more than 200 species of migrating birds flock to Guangdong every winter, and the hunt will lead to break the biological chain.

"The wild animal protection rule is insufficient. The government should establish a law especially for the protection of migrating birds," he said.