The Chinese province of Hubei has passed a law to ban the eating of wild animals completely, including those bred or raised by people.
Experts believe that the country’s deadly coronavirus outbreak, which started in Hubei, was caused by the practice.
China’s central government last month blocked all trade and consumption of wildlife, but it did not specify if farm-raised ones would be covered.
The government of China’s Hubei Province has banned the eating of wild animal species, including those bred and raised by people. The file photo taken on January 17 shows the Huanan Seafood Whole Market, which is believed to be the origin of the coronavirus outbreak
The law forbids the consumption of all wild animals on land as well as endangered and protected wild aquatic species. In the file photo taken on January 5, 2004, workers collect civets in Xinyuan wildlife market to prevent a possible spread of SARS in Guangzhou
The news comes as Hubei province, which has around 58million residents, has reported no new daily cases of coronavirus outside of Wuhan for the first time since the outbreak started late last year.
The wildlife protection law from the local lawmakers took effect from yesterday and covers wildlife and wildlife products.
It forbids the consumption of all wild animals on land as well as endangered and protected wild aquatic species.
Globally, at least 3,300 people have died and more than 98,000 have contracted the infection
No organisations or individuals are allowed to produce, process, use or conduct commercial operations with wildlife or wildlife products which are banned by the document, officials say
The directive also cracks down on the wildlife trade.
No organisations or individuals are allowed to produce, process, use or conduct commercial operations with wildlife or wildlife products which are banned by the document, officials say.
Any related hunting, breeding, transporting, trading, carrying or mailing is illegal.
Citizens are forbidden from encouraging or persuading others to eat or conduct illegal trading of wild animals. Such activities include releasing advertisements, installing relevant signboards and publishing recipes.
Scientific and medical teams must undergo strict applications and quarantine inspections should they need to use wild animals for non-food-related work purposes.
The regulations were passed yesterday at a conference by local lawmakers, the Standing Committee of People’s Congress of Hubei Province.
Viral footage purports to show a fashionable Chinese young woman biting one of the wings of a cooked bat at a fancy restaurant. The deadly coronavirus could come from the animal
Pictures emerging on Twitter shows soup cooked with a bat. Bats are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a series of illness, including coughing, malaria and gonorrhea
China’s top legislative committee passed new legislation to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals on February 24.
Beijing is yet to revise its wild animal protection law, but the passage of the proposal was ‘essential’ and ‘urgent’ in helping the country win its war against the epidemic, wrote state newspaper People’s Daily.
The exact source of the new coronavirus remains unconfirmed. Experts speculate that it originated in bats, snakes, pangolins, or some other animal.
Chinese workers wear protective masks and suits before entering the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan to carry out thorough disinfection works on March 4
Hazmat-clad cleaners are tasked to sanitise stalls and safely dispose of the remaining stock
Scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention claim that humans caught the virus from animals sold as food at a market in Wuhan.
The once-popular Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was shut in early January in the wake of the epidemic.
Wuhan and the majority parts of Hubei have been on lockdown for more than a month to stop the spread of the disease.
In China alone, the health crisis has claimed at least 3,042 lives and infected more than 80,500 people.
Globally, at least 3,300 people have died and more than 98,000 have contracted the infection.