Seal death prompts restaurant ban

Municipal agricultural authorities said they have stopped granting permits to Beijing restaurants and hotels to keep seals, after the recent death of a protected harbor seal at a Chaoyang district hotel.

The Municipal Bureau of Agriculture will no longer grant permits, and the three seals that are still being kept in two restaurants will be transferred to places with a more adequate environment, said an official with the bureau's Fisheries Department, surnamed Li.

Huanhuan, a female seal kept at Regal Palace, Chaoyang district, died on March 1, five days after Hu Chumei, a volunteer with Beijing-based animal protection organization Green Beagle discovered she was suffering from an eye disease and injuries to her left flipper.

"We planned to give her a checkup on March 2, but she just left us and it was heartbreaking," Hu said. Huanhuan had lived at Regal Palace for nine years, the second seal they kept. The first died in 2006 due to malnutrition. The reason for Huanhuan's death is unclear, as the autopsy result is yet to be released.

According to the bureau, seals are nationally protected animals. They issue permits to restaurants that provide documentation to prove they can provide the correct environment, personnel and medical care to keep the seals.

There are around 2,000 harbor seals in Chinese waters according to a China Science Daily report on March 5.

Regal Palace, Yugong Yupo and the Da Dongbei Restaurant in Chaoyang district are the only three premises in Beijing licensed by the bureau to keep seals.

A fisheries supervisor with the bureau, surnamed He, said they conduct regular inspections on the seals, including their living environment, the water quality and their health condition. Huanhuan, together with the two seals at Yugong Yupo and one at Da Dongbei, were healthy according to a check on February 9.

"We received reports from residents that the seals at the restaurants may have been abused, but according to our inspection they weren't," He said.

Qiu Tian, manager of Yugong Yupo, said their two seals had not had major diseases except a minor cold during the past five years.

"We have an employee who knows about fishery. He feeds and cares for the seals, and we have a consultant from the aquarium," he said. Customers are not allowed to come too close to the seals' pool, nor can they touch or feed them.

"Seals won't be affected by customers," said Qiu, "they don't have feelings, and only respond to the keeper who feeds them."

Yugong Yupo has not considered transferring the seals, and the bureau has already accepted their application to renew the permit, Qiu said. However, Li denied having accepted the application, and the official acceptance had already been removed from the bureau's website as of yesterday.

"After Huanhuan's death, we have been researching how to deal with the seals kept by restaurants," said Li.

"We can't just release them since they've been kept by humans for so long," Li said, "so we're talking with the restaurants about transferring them to a safer place such as parks or animal care centers."

A simple diet provided by restaurants can easily lead to malnutrition, and a limited space and noisy environment greatly affects seals' mood and health, said Tian Jiguang, head of the Panjin Harbor Seal Protection Volunteer Association. He added that many of the seals were sold to restaurants after being caught by fishermen by accident.

According to their research, there are 23 restaurants nationwide raising 43 seals, but not all of them are certified to do so. Raising seals as pets could make the trade become more popular, and leave residents thinking that it's normal to raise a protected animal for fun, Tian noted.