We found so many fascinating contradictions and shocking nuggets in our deep dive into China's wildlife industry and why its new ban is not enough to stop future virus outbreaks. THREAD:
latimes.com/world-nation/s…
latimes.com/world-nation/s…
In 2003, Chinese authorities banned wildlife consumption. Tens of thousands of civets, suspected intermediate carrier of SARS virus, were killed. But 3 months later, the ban was lifted. By 2019, govt subsidies were helping thousands of farmers pivot into civet breeding (!)
Jiangxi report on govt help for civet breeders: “The cold winter wind was screaming, but Zhang Zhilin, a poor farmer in Wanan county had a ‘warm sun’ in his heart. The 33 civet cats he bred would come out for sale next year, bringing in $7,000 of income." forestry.gov.cn/main/72/201911…
How did this happen? Under China's Wildlife Protection Law, 54 types of wild animals, civets included, can be legally farmed & sold for consumption, as long as they have govt permits. The idea is that farming animals for sale will leave those in the wild untouched & "protected"
Critics say this permit system becomes a cover for illegal poaching & trade of all kinds of wild animals whether on the permitted list or not (including animals close to extinction). Tigers, pangolins, bats, civets, bears, snakes, eagles, salamanders, you name it.
Why does the wildlife trade matter? Bc close interaction w wild animals, esp multiple species raised and sold in cramped spaces, raises the risk of zoonotic disease transmission - illnesses that jump from animals to humans, like SARS, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, avian flu, and #COVID19.
China has now banned wildlife consumption & trade again. But the ban has major loopholes: it only covers land animals. It doesn't cover use of wildlife for medicine - including TCM remedies that China is pushing as treatment for COVID-19, despite no clinical proof that they work
Those treatments include 痰热清, a bear-bile based remedy recommended in the latest ed. of China's national guidelines for COVID-19 care. China is promoting wildlife-based medicine for a disease that scientists agree came from wildlife, while also banning wildlife trade..!
Scientists & conservationists are baffled at the logic. Banning EATING wildlife is a huge step fwd, yes, but as long as wildlife is still used for any business, risk of zoonotic disease transmission remains high.
Example: BATS. The horseshoe bat, suspected host of SARS-CoV-2 (the new coronavirus), can be found in Hubei. It's one of several bat species used commercially in China for TCM. Ppl harvest the bat's feces to make 夜明砂, "night brightness sand," a remedy for eye problems
A study from German & Chinese researchers on bat species used for TCM, five of which are hosts of coronaviruses, three of which can be found in Hubei: sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
But TCM companies already hold significant sway over wildlife "protection" - which usually means farming - in China. Three out of 14 vice-chairs of the China Wildlife Conservation Association's board, for example, are TCM company executives.
They are: Liu Jianshun, president of 漳州片仔癀, a medicine made w deer musk, cow gallstone & snake bile; Gao Zhenkun, managing director of 北京同仁堂, famous for tiger bone wine; and Guo Jiaxue, head of 广誉远, whose trademark product traditionally includes pangolin scales.
The current wildlife ban punishes consumers for eating wildlife, but does not tackle corporate interests or official corruption. Last year, we reported on provincial authorities who gave pangolin breeding permits to a STEEL COMPANY: latimes.com/world-nation/s…
That company was later implicated in a criminal case of wildlife trafficking involving more than 50,000 smuggled pangolins. (Pangolins are like sandshrews, see picture! And they are facing extinction.) Also they are a suspected intermediate host of the new coronavirus. 
China's wildlife problem is not primarily about culture - the majority of Chinese people DON'T eat wildlife! It is a problem of money and power and a $73 billion industry that employs 14 million ppl, and that the govt has been pushing as a good business for poverty alleviation
The question now is whether Beijing will choose to protect the interests of that multibillion $ industry or the lives of those it has harmed - dozens of endangered animal species and now billions of humans affected by COVID-19, including tens of thousands who have died.
Many thanks to @TheWCS @CBCGDF_China for their help w this story. You can read it @latimes: latimes.com/world-nation/s…
