View This Source chinaview.wordpress.com /2008/11/12/

China: Wild animals threatened by booming demand of food and medicine
Posted by chinaview on November 12, 2008 By Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters, Tue Nov 11, 2008-

BEIJING (Reuters) - Wild animals are climbing back onto Chinese plates after the deadly SARS virus made some diners wary, and booming demand for traditional medicine is also threatening some plants, environmentalists said on Wednesday. Nearly half of urbanites had consumed wildlife in the past 12 months, either as food or medicine, with rich and well educated Chinese most likely to tuck into a wild snake or turtle, a survey of urbanites in six cities found. They enjoyed eating wildlife because they saw it as “unpolluted,” “special” and with extra nourishing and health powers, according to a study commissioned by Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. “This consumer demand is increasingly placing the natural environment — both in China and abroad — at risk through unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade,” the report said. Around half of the southern Chinese markets checked by Traffic were also selling wildlife for the pot , mostly reptiles but some birds and mammals as well. Two species for sale are on an international list of 800 critically threatened animals……. (more details from Reuters) This entry was posted on November 12, 2008 at 4:22 am

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