A man has been given a one-year jail term for poisoning sparrows
and selling them to restaurants and barbecue stands, a Beijing
court ruled on Monday.
Bai Qingli, a migrant from Baoding city in neighboring Hebei
province, has been accused of killing 647 sparrows with poison in
Yufa Township of Daxing District in Beijing, an area where hunting
is banned.
Bai said he bought poisonous bait from collectors and sold the
birds to them for 0.3 yuan (3.9 US cent) each. The collectors then
sold the sparrows to eateries.
The Daxing District Court convicted Bai of poaching. It also
said Bai's conduct posed a threat to public health because the
traces of poison in the birds are harmful to people who eat
them.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)
