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Farmers Punished for Poaching, Trading in Snub-Nosed Monkeys
The Intermediate People's Court of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, recently upheld a lower court ruling in which seven farmers in the province was sentenced to four to 11 years imprisonment after being found guilty of poaching and trading in snub-nosed monkeys.
Court investigations found that in September 1997, Lu Wuyun, a farmer from Honghua Town of Shennongjia Nature Reserve Area, in northwestern Hubei, collaborated with two other villagers in shooting two snub-nosed monkeys inside the State Nature Reserve at Shennongjia. The farmers then poached the dead monkeys along with another live snub-nosed monkey, which died later.
The three skinned the three monkeys and sold the skins to another farmer, Xu Mingwu, from Shiyan City for 700 yuan (approximately 84.3). Xu was caught by local police when he was attempting to resell the skins.
In a separate case, farmer Li Yuanxing from Honghua Town also collaborated with Li Xiangjun, another farmer from the same town, to sneak into the state nature reserve in April this year and steal one snub-nosed monkey. The two sold the small snub-nosed monkey to farmer Lu Wubing from the same town. The three were reported to the police and were later detained by the police. The snub-nosed monkey was set free.
The seven farmers were sentenced to varied terms of imprisonment and were also issued fines totaling 20,000 yuan by the People's Court of Shennongjia Nature Reserve in a first-instance trial. The criminals then appealed to a higher people's court in Shiyan City.
The Intermediate People's Court of Shiyan City rejected the seven criminals' appeal in its final judgment and upheld the previous ruling made by the People's Court of Shennongjia Nature Reserve.
Snub-nosed monkeys are listed under top state protection in China.
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