Bushmeat consumption and illegal wildlife trade and the spread of diseases

[KevinB]

The documentary you mentioned sounds very interesting, I'd like to watch it at some point. What was it called and can it be found on youtube ?

To be honest I'm a little shocked with the ethical dimensions of what the journalist did with the chimpanzee meat but I totally agree it does indeed prove a point and sometimes things which seem ethically questionable can be valuable illustrations.

The documentary is in fact available on YouTube. It is mostly in Dutch with some parts in French, and I don't know how good the subtitles are.

I found the buying of bushmeat and especially the buying and smuggling of the chimpanzee meat very disturbing. I wish they had been able to show the extent of the issue in a different way.

 

[Ding Lingwei]

This also caught my eye:

"Although the official livestock catalog of the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs hasn't been released yet, snakes aren't listed in the draft. Once it's released, snakes can't be put on dinning tables. Qiu Guoqiang, head of the Deqing Wetland and Wildlife Protection Administration in East China's Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times."*

Despite his title, I think Qiu is misinterpreting the draft. It lacks not only any snake species, but also turtles, frogs and most notably fish. I think it is intended to apply only to warm-blooded classes. Possibly @Ding Lingwei might shed a little more light here?

*I've edited this for clarity. He goes on to reassure readers that snakes will still be farmed for their medicinal products even if they can't be eaten.

In China aquatic animals (including frogs and turtles) are managed separately by Bureau of Fisheries, a subdivision of MOA, which is why none is mentioned in the list (though a list for aquatic animals is also urgently needed).

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The documentary is in fact available on YouTube. It is mostly in Dutch with some parts in French, and I don't know how good the subtitles are.

I found the buying of bushmeat and especially the buying and smuggling of the chimpanzee meat very disturbing. I wish they had been able to show the extent of the issue in a different way.

Thanks for this ! I look forward to watching it later for sure.

I agree it is disturbing but what better way is there to highlight the issue of bushmeat , its demand even in the West, and the facility through which it can pass through airport security then the experiment by the journalist you've mentioned ?

Maybe it was a necessary evil ?