‘Too delicious’: panda caretaker accused of eating protected birds and bragging on social media
Breeding centre in southern China investigating claims its employee broke wildlife conservation laws
A caretaker at a giant panda protection centre in southern China is being investigated for illegally keeping and killing protected animals, a newspaper reported today.
The man, identified only by his surname He, apparently didn’t try to hide his behaviour – for the past year he posted photos on his WeChat account of pet eagles and other protected birds he cooked and ate, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.
In the end, it was a friend who exposed him. A decade ago, He met a man surnamed Liu at a forum on wildlife protection.
Liu noticed the disturbing images that began to pop up on He’s WeChat messaging account and decided to get public attention by posting them on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.
“His acts constitute illegally keeping and killing animals protected under China’s wild animal conservation law,” the Daily quoted Liu as saying.
Liu took screenshots of He’s WeChat account, where on November 29 he uploaded four photos – two of eagles and two bowls containing skinned birds, with the caption: “This is too delicious”.
He cares for pandas at the Bifengxia Panda Base in Yaan in Sichuan province, and it confronted him about the Weibo photos.
He denied he did anything wrong and claimed the birds depicted were all rescued and released into the wild. The centre is investigating the case.
All eagles and falcons species on the mainland are included on the “national key protected wild animal list”.
It is illegal to hunt, kill, sell or purchase listed animals or their products.
