【Background】

Today, "earthworm electric shocks" are an environmental annoyance in China, yet they are popular as a cure due to market demand. People use e-commerce sites to purchase "earthworm electric shock devices," which are illegal wildlife hunting instruments used to kill vast numbers of earthworms in the wild.

Earthworms are also essential for soil health. The problem is that "earthworms" are not listed as protected animals in China's wildlife protection law. As a result, earthworms have been caught in significant numbers in some places of China for more than a decade, but the practice has not been enforced.

As a result, in July 2020, CBCGDF filed a lawsuit against three "earthworm electric shock devices producers." The matter has created quite a stir in China.

【Latest report】

On 24, August, the CBCGDF received three judgments from the Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court on the issue of selling earthworm electric shock hunting tools.

According to the Zhuhai Court, in order to survive and achieve sustainable development, the human being, as a member of the world, should protect the biodiversity and the soil ecological enviroment.

As required by the 22th rule of The Wildlife Protection Regulations of Guangdong Province, it is forbidden to use electronic traps to hunt wild animals. This prohibition is not only applicable to the protection of wild animals of the "three important aspects" – that is, useful or important species to economy and scientific research -but also to other terrestrial wild animals that are of important value to the soil ecosystem.

Although earthworms are not classified as wildlife under special state protection and also don’t belong to the wildlife of "three important aspects", but they still play an important role in the soil ecosystem. Thus the act of selling earthworm electric shock hunting tools, which allow the buyers to hunt earthworms intensively and destroy the sustainable development of the ecological environment, should be deemed to have caused damage to the public interest of the ecological environment.

The case stems from three defendants selling electronic devices for hunting earthworms on E-commerce platforms. The court of first instance adjudicated that the merchant selling earthworm electric shock devices apologize, compensate nearly 2 million Yuan for the ecological environment loss and paid the CBCGDF's legal expenses.

Original article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kVxY5stzYaFFc1lZXUqPVA

Written by/ Wu Jian

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