Home>News Center>China | ||
Is it time to start culling big bad wolf?
To lose their livelihoods or to break the law? That is the question facing herdsmen in China's wild wild west.
But recent reports of "big bad carnivores" devouring livestock have meant the wolves' days as untouchables may be coming to an end. Last April, a pack of wolves attacked a pasture close to Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killing 10 sheep belonging to herdsman Bieke. On a wintry January night in Inner Mongolia, 180 sheep fell victim to wild wolves. Since January, more than 1,000 domesticated animals are believed to have been killed by the voracious predators in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. One shocking incident happened on December 21, 2004, when a lone wolf chased a teenager down the street in a county town in Baicheng, Jilin Province in Northeast China. Police came to the rescue and, with approval from their boss, shot it down. A local official in charge of wild animal protection explained that, under
normal circumstances, one should not harm a wolf, but self-defence is justified.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||