10 suspects arrested in slaughter, sale of giant panda

A portion of the hide from the dead giant panda seized by police on Wednesday Photo: IC

Ten suspects involved in killing and trading a giant panda have been recently caught by the police in South China's Yunnan Province, the China Central Television reported on Wednesday.

The police found the giant panda's hide, meat weighing 9.75 kilograms, two shank bones, two pieces of skull bone and a gall bladder in Zhaotong city of Yunnan, according to Yunnan's provincial forest public security bureau.

Among the 10 suspects, a pair of brothers surnamed Wang, who allegedly killed the adult female panda on December 4, 2014, and the purchaser of panda meat surnamed Wu, have been arrested.

The brothers allegedly used shotguns and a dog to search for a culprit after one of their sheep was bitten to death on December 3.

Noticing an animal in a tree, they shot at it, discovering it was a giant panda after it fell out of the tree. When the injured panda climbed another tree, one of the brothers fired a second shot at it, which led to its death, the CCTV news reported on Wednesday.

It is not the only slaughter of a giant panda in China in recent years. In 2007, Li Qijun confessed to killing a panda in Baoxing Nature Reserve in Sichuan, one of Yunnan's neighboring provinces, with plans to sell its skin for 500,000 yuan ($80,600).

According to China's Criminal Law, anyone illegally trapping or killing endangered wildlife under special State protection, or illegally purchasing, transporting or selling said wildlife or products derived therefrom will be sentenced to over 10 years if the circumstances warrant.