UNDERGROUND INDUSTRY
An underground market has emerged to meet the demand of the devoted.
Kong Lingshui, a law enforcement officer with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry, told Xinhua that most of the freed animals were raised domestically. The releasers did not even know where the animals came from, according to Kong, nor did they know if the animals could adapt to their new environment.
"Freeing wild animals blindly disturbs local ecological systems," Kong said. "We once caught a group of people freeing Brazilian tortoises in Beijing. The animals eat fish fry in rivers and multiply easily, damaging the aquatic ecosystem."
The rewards for the practice are not just spiritual. According to Kong, his team found an animal-freeing organization in 2007 was demanding 500 yuan (77 U.S. dollars) in "releasing fees" and 30 yuan for transportation costs from 500 participants.
"The actual cost of the activity was only 20,000 yuan," Kong said. "Additionally, the pheasants they released barely had any feathers, meaning they could not survive in the wild," Kong added that many released animals, such as sparrows, are recaptured and sold to releasers again." Almost 30 percent of sparrows die in the process."
Chen Junfeng, an officer with the Huangshan forestry police, said that the released animals could also threaten other wild species already facing extinction.
There is currently no applicable law to address the release of captive animals, so even if police find the releasers in the Beijing case, it will be difficult to penalize them, said Kong.
Yang Zhaoxia, an ecology expert with the Beijing Forestry University, said that China must speed up legislation on the issue to encourage "harmonious coexistence between animals, the environment and human beings."
"Releasing wild animals on a large scale could cause hazardous results," she said.
Kong Lingshui said that China should enhance online supervision to punish illegal activities organized via the Internet.
Social media users agreed.
"If releasing wild animals damages the environment, then it is not benevolence," said user "Lajimaichang" on web portal 163.com. "It is killing."
