Officials at a Chinese province have reportedly culled more than 1.6 tonnes of farm-bred bamboo rats in one go…
After the government banned the eating and trading of wild animals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese bamboo rats have been a sought-after food source in the country for centuries and hailed for their ‘nutritional value’.
Forestry workers at Hubei Province, the former epicentre of the outbreak, buried more than 900 bamboo rats alive on Friday after seizing them from a local farmer to crack down on the wild animal trade, according to a local report.
The report said that specialist workers had dug a deep pit in the mountains far from sources of drinking water before placing the live creatures inside and scattering lime powder over them.
In February, China’s central government issued a temporary ban on all trade and consumption of wild animals – a practice believed responsible for the global crisis.
The government of Hubei passed a law in March to ban the eating of wild animals completely, including those bred or raised by people.
The culling was carried out by the Xian’an District Forest Bureau of Xianning, a city of around 2.5million people in Hubei.
All of the bamboo rats, amounting 916 in total, were said to belong to the same breeder, who ran one of the biggest bamboo rat farms in the area.
Footage shows lime powder was scattered on the rats before they were buried to reduce the impact on the local environment.
Apart from the bamboo rats, the local forest bureau culled seven porcupines weighing a total of 140 kilograms (308 pounds), 1,605 kilograms (3,538 pounds) of snakes and four kilograms (8.8 pounds) of snake eggs.
Bamboo Rats
These huge rats can weigh up to five kilograms (11 pounds) and grow to 45 centimetres (17 inches) long.
As of February, there were an estimated 25 million bamboo rats on various Chinese farms, mostly in southern parts of the country, such as Guangxi and Guangdong where locals welcome exotic meat.
Just about 3 days ago 1,000,000 pigs were culled due to the worst ever outbreak of African Swine Fever in Nigeria:
In Guangxi, a largely agricultural province with around 50 million people, more than 100,000 people were raising roughly 18 million bamboo rats, a local official told China News Weekly.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the meat of bamboo rats can detoxify one’s body and improve the functions of one’s stomach and spleen. Others believe it can ‘beautify’ the diners. [Iquiyi, Weibo, DM]
 to crack down on the wild animal trade and the health crisis.){kind=link}
It never fails to astound me as to what the Chinese will eat! Bamboo Rats, Porcupines, Bats, Snakes. Its a wonder there’s any wildlife left?
Why not give them to Chinese soldiers at India Border lines , they are hungry and will eat any things?
They probably had a disease and aren’t telling.
yes, that was also my thought.