During the recent Spring Festival which is the season for family dinners and banquets in China, many rare animals had the good fortune to escape being served up for dinner.

This was as much due to the growing awareness of the importanceof animal quarantine as to animal protection.

Dedicated environmentalists and officials are now committed to spreading the news that no quarantine measures are ever taken before wild animals arrive at the dinner table.

Many Chinese believe that wild animals have medicinal or pep-upproperties, but experts say they are far more likely to be carriers of germs and parasites.

Experts with help from the media have been organizing public dissections of wild snakes confiscated from animal smugglers by police.

In this way the onlookers can see for themselves how many living parasites there are under the microscope.

Quarantine officials say that wild animals are usually served up without any clear idea of where they were caught. Many of the animals are even infected with unknown diseases, which is very dangerous for diners.

However, urbanites are more inclined to be influenced by animal protection than by animal health, as China reinforces the law on wildlife protection.

In south China's Guangdong Province, wild meat eaters can be fined as much as 10,000 yuan or even punished for criminal liability.

Many Chinese are taking part in protests against the illegal killing of and trading in animals. There are over 2,000 non-governmental environmental organizations across the country taking up the call to save rare wild animals.

Earlier this year, 200 chefs from all parts of China, including Hong Kong and Macao, pledged to keep rare animals out of their cooking pots and also to encourage fellow chefs to do the same.

They have been honored as "green" chefs. An official from the Chinese Wildlife Protection Association which is involved in the project, said that the objective is to convince at least a million of China's eight million chefs and cooks to sign the manifesto by 2006.

China is famous for its diverse mouth watering cuisine. But there is also an outdated affectation to have "extravagant" wild animals on table as a method of "showing-off," which has led to much unmerciful killing.

A survey carried out by the association in 21 large cities in China found that nearly half those surveyed say that they had tasted wild animals at least once.

The investigation also showed 53 varieties of wild species are killed for culinary use, 14 of which are on the state's most protected animals' list.

( February 23, 2002)