Three men who butchered an endangered white dolphin and sold it on the street in Zhuhai, south China’s Guangdong Province last month are now facing criminal charges, according to Xinhua news agency.
Gruesome pictures of the chopped up dolphin, including a whole head lying in an icebox, caused an outcry on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, and netizens’ voices eventually got the attention of local authorities, with Zhuhai's Marine Agriculture and Water Affairs Bureau announcing it had launched an investigation into the case.
The case aroused netizens' anger on Weibo on March 31, 2017. /Screenshot from Weibo
The Administration of Ocean and Fisheries of Guangdong Province later confirmed the slaughtered dolphin on March 29 was a Chinese white dolphin, a first-grade protected wild animal.
The three suspects however claimed they had found the dead creature floating in the water while they were fishing.
Screenshot from Weibo
Chinese white dolphins are regarded as endangered by China's wildlife conservation body. The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates there are around 2,500 Chinese white dolphins left in the wild.
According to the Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China, people who hunt, kill, sell or buy whole or parts of endangered wild animals, will face criminal liability, meaning the three suspects can still be charged even if they did not slaughter the dolphin.
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