Chinese safari park managers have signed a pact agreeing to cease the feeding of large domesticated animals to the park's captive predators for visitors' entertainment.

At a conference of wild animal park management held last week in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, 22 managers signed an agreement to end the bloody practice.

The managers said they acknowledged that wild animals have the same sense of "agony, terror and annoyance" as human beings. They said the pact will provide wild animals in safari parks a better environment, where they can live with minimal human disturbance.

The practice could lead visitors to believe that animals, both hunter and prey, are only human playthings, said Xie Youxin, deputy general manager of the wild animal world in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan Province.

The bloody scene could also have "implanted violent tendencies in youngsters," Xie said.

The pact, however, only restricts the release of large domestic animals, such as oxen and horses, during the presence of visitors.

Feeding when the park is not open is permitted. Parks are allowed to continue to sell small birds for visitors to feed the "wild beasts." 

If one of the parks violates the pact, its business will be revoked, said Li Qingwen, general secretary of the country's wild animal protection association.

Currently, there are about 30 safari parks in the Chinese mainland. 

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2005)