Original title: National "Three Owns" protect animals from flowing to the table to become game (theme)
The gang illegally traded more than 70 thousand wild birds and was sentenced and compensated (subtitle)
Rule of Law Daily reporter Luo Shasha
The rule of law daily correspondent Sun Xinxin Chen Wenjia
In order to gain profits, a gang knows that wild animals such as black water chicken and field sole are "three-owned" animals that are protected by the state or have important economic and scientific research value, but they still contact each other to hunt and sell, consign and post them in the name of frozen pigeon meat, and illegally trade more than 76,000 wild birds and animals.
Recently, after the People’s Procuratorate of Donghai County, Jiangsu Province filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit, Ge and others were sentenced by the court to penalties ranging from 2 years and 3 months to 3 months of criminal detention, suspended for 6 months, and public welfare compensation ranging from 13.9185 million yuan to 12,000 yuan. At this point, a criminal chain with clear division of labor and complete links of "hunting, transporting and selling" has been destroyed.
Protect the animal incarnation "pigeon meat"
In October, 2021, the public security organ of Lianyungang discovered that Ge had consigned frozen pigeon meat with a gross weight of 5,335 kilograms to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province for 35 times through an airport in Donghai County in April of that year. Pigeons are found all over the country, and the transportation cost of airplanes is so high. Why do you consign "pigeon meat" so frequently and in large quantities in a short period of time? This attracted the attention of the airport branch staff.
After sampling and identification through legal procedures, the "pigeon meat" checked by Ge is actually a black water chicken, which belongs to the national "three-owned" protected animals, and the benchmark value is each 300 yuan.
On November 8, 2021, Lianyungang Public Security Bureau handed over the case to Donghai County Public Security Bureau for investigation. On November 9 of the same year, the police arrested Ge, and found that there were 268 black water chickens, 5 boneheaded chickens and 1518 field plaice in his car, all of which belonged to the national "three-owned" protected animals. After investigation, on February 16, 2022, Donghai County Public Security Bureau transferred 15 people including Ge Mou to Donghai County Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
Where did Ge’s "pigeon meat" come from? Hunting by yourself or trading? Have the upstream and downstream accomplices fully explained the facts of the crime? After a comprehensive review of the case, these problems haunted the prosecutor’s mind. After careful analysis of the case, the prosecutor in charge started an interrogation from Ge, and uncovered an illegal hunting, purchasing, transporting and selling wildlife gang.
The illegal trading chain surfaced.
After interrogation, Ge confessed that he was the middleman of the trading chain, mainly contacting the online for acquisition and looking for the offline for sales. "Online" Dai Moulei, Wu Mouren and others are a group of "professional" illegal bird catchers. They are familiar with the living habits of wild birds such as black water chickens. From October 2020 to November 2021, they hunted in the black water chickens’ habitats in many places at night, using nets made of white nylon silk thread to attract wild birds by means of food and playing bird calls. Once the birds enter the net, they will be firmly entangled and cannot escape. Dai Moulei, Wu Mouren and others will contact Ge to buy the captured wild birds after processing them. In addition, Ge will also buy wild birds from Ge Mobo.
Later, Ge Mou sold the purchased wild birds to Chen Mou, Xie Moupeng, Zhang Mouqing and others, and Xie Moupeng sold them to Huang Mouxing, Liu Moujun, Xu Mouqing and others, while Liu Moujun and Xu Mouqing also acquired from Liu Mouwei, Wang Mou and Wang Moucun … a "black trading chain" with Ge Mou as the core for illegal hunting, acquisition, transportation and sale of wild animals.
In this way, the hunted wild birds such as black water chicken and field plaice have been sold wholesale or retail by many people for many times, and finally flow to the table in the name of frozen "pigeon meat", ranging from roadside restaurants to wedding tables, becoming the game that some "bird eaters" flock to. After investigation, Ge and others illegally traded more than 76,000 wild animals such as black water chickens and field scorpions, involving a transaction amount of more than 1 million yuan.
Hold up an umbrella for wild animals
"There are a large number of people involved in the upstream and downstream of the case, and the number of illegally traded wild animals is large, and the handling process coincides with the entry into force of relevant new judicial interpretations. There is room for discussion on whether Ge and others are guilty of concealing or concealing the crime or illegally buying and selling terrestrial wild animals." The prosecutor said.
The prosecutor took the initiative to guide the public security organs to obtain evidence, grasped the investigation direction, made a detailed supplementary investigation outline, and suggested that the public security organs comprehensively collect and fix evidence on the acquisition source, destination, transportation mode and transaction mode of wild birds such as black pheasant and boneheaded pheasant, and carefully combed and analyzed the subjective knowledge, chat records and transfer records of the people involved, clarified the key clues, and finally verified the criminal evidence of Ge and others’ upstream and downstream transactions, and confessed through the accomplices.
In addition, the prosecutor in charge strengthened the guidance and investigation in the process of handling, and used the integrated case handling mechanism to strengthen the evidence review and check, and accurately characterized everyone’s criminal behavior. On September 29, 2022, Donghai County Procuratorate prosecuted 8 people including Ge Mou and Xie Moupeng for the crime of illegal acquisition and sale of terrestrial wildlife, and 3 people including Dai Moulei and Wu Mouren for the crime of illegal hunting. Ge Mobo was prosecuted for the crime of illegal sale of terrestrial wildlife, and two people, including Wang Mou, who was slightly involved in the case, were relatively not prosecuted according to law, and Wang Mouying, who had other facts involved in the case, was transferred to other counties and districts for review.
At the same time, the Donghai County Procuratorate clearly defined the specific scope of joint liability according to the amount of compensation for public welfare damage that each defendant had to bear, and ordered 12 people including Ge Mou and Dai Moulei to compensate for the loss of wildlife resources with criminal incidental civil public interest litigation, totaling 22.95 million yuan. At present, 10 people including Xie Mopeng and Zhang Moqing have voluntarily returned 215,000 yuan. Recently, the Environmental Court of guannan county People’s Court made the above judgment.
According to the prosecutor in charge, the case caused the loss of wildlife resources and the destruction of the ecological environment, and the wild animals sold were in danger of infringing on the health of consumers and causing public health emergencies, which harmed the public interest. Ge and others should not only bear criminal responsibility, but also bear civil tort liability for their actions that damage public welfare. After that, the hospital will also make targeted procuratorial suggestions in combination with similar case studies to support wild animals.
Source: Rule of Law Daily
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