TNAG-0469-FCO40-534-Legislation-for-protection-of-wild-life-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 107

PENN

FX

PENN

Lanco.

We thought one way to do it would be for us to call and make a very large order, one which they wouldn't be able to fill and then we would say "Well, how many can you get?" However, our estimate for a large order was a savere underestimato. We said initially "Can you get as many as 20 eagles in one day?" They said "What! Ho sell more than 60 in one day. Any day."

So this approach had to be stopped. What we did then was call for several days running, make a tolephone call to three or four of the dealers and ask them how many cagles they had in that day, or how many they had coming in that day.

One dealer had 20 on Tuesday which were sold when we called; again. He called too late on Wednesday, another 30 had been sold.

This produced a figure of over 10,000 birds in the winter months; mainly buzzards, kestrals, and a selection of owls; and then lass frequently porenrines, goshawks, vultures and eagles.

We halved this figure for exaggeration, ignored the summer months completely and the smaller shops, and arrived at an annual figure of between 5000 and 6000 raptors a year, which we think is rather conservative.

Hong Kong lics on a major migration route across the China coast, and many of these birds are caught on their winter journey south. The Colony is itself an end stop, and also a resting place for those on longer journeys. Some species fly from the Arctic Circle as far as Australia and New Zealand, and birds of prey travel from Russia, Siberia and China itself to Burma, the Philippines and other South East Asian countries. Many of them are trapped just north of Hong Kong by Chinose peasants anxious to supplement their incomes.

Lanco

In a Commune just outside Canton the Revolutionary Committee Chairman was quito proud of the fact that many of the peasants in his Commune ware quite skilled at trapping birds and at catching wild animals. He also mentioned they used to catch many snakes. And those were then either eaten by the people themselves or were then sent into Canton via local markets to be sold, perhaps, in Canton or oven in Hong Kong.

Waterfront atmosphere, unloading from junks.

The Chinese insist upon fresh-killed meat, so most of it - domestic or wild comes in live, involving extreme cruelty as we shall shortly hear. Throughout the winter, a whole range of birds