Hiking enthusiasts in Nanjing are being called upon to be more aware in their activity, given the increased recent likelihood of being caught in animal traps. Cut-price traps online are not helping the situation as regulatory tries to keep pace.
On 19 April, Nanjing-hiking fan, Ms. Yuan, was accidentally caught in a trap while hiking in our City’s Lao Shan National Park. It was the third such incident that has occurred in the mountains around Nanjing in the past month.
While one of those trapped required the assistance of firefighters to escape the trap, a reporter’s investigation has found that animal traps are easily available on major e-commerce platforms. The smart capabilities thereof have also resulted in astonishing online sales.
In a report by The Paper, wildlife-protection experts have said that the unauthorised use of animal traps for hunting violates the Wildlife Protection Law and quite possibly Criminal Law as well.
However, due to difficulties in the investigating and penalising of offenders, the trend in the proliferation of animal traps is a difficult issue to tackle.
Yuan told reporters that her hiking route was recommended by someone using an app designed for outdoor enthusiasts. The trap which ensnared her had been placed in the middle of a small path in the woods which was about 40 centimetres wide.
After posting her personal experience online, Yuan said she received a private message from another user who had also stepped on a trap on the same route.
Backing up a bit, on 6 January of this year, a video taken on a road in Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum Scenic Area of Nanjing went viral. It showed a deer limping along the road and that the cause was a trap caught on its forelimb.
A wildlife-protection volunteer who goes by their online name, “Tianjiangming”, spoke with media about the development of hunting tools that has become highly specialised and even intelligent.
Today’s high tech means that once a prey steps on a trap, poachers can receive notifications thereof on their smart phone, greatly facilitating their illegal activity.
But legal mechanisms coming into effect seem hardly up to the job. The new Wildlife Protection Law, that will be officially implemented on 1 May, states that any act of hunting wild animals must be approved by a competent department of wildlife protection, while a hunting license must be obtained in accordance with the law.
According to the second paragraph of Article 341 of the Criminal Law, there are serious penalties for those who violate hunting regulations, engage in hunting in prohibited areas or during hunting seasons, use prohibited methods to hunt or damage wildlife resources. Should the circumstances be particularly serious, they can earn the offender 10 years in prison.
That all said, although the law prohibits the unauthorised use of animal traps for hunting, there remain no restrictions on the production thereof. Hikers in Nanjing have therefore little choice but to be increasingly vigilant.
