Regulations containing clauses that recommend people give up wildlife consumption were passed in Guangzhou on Friday afternoon by south China's Guangdong provincial legislature after two months of discussion and revision.

The provincial patriotic public health campaign work regulations, whose final version says people "should" give up wildlife cuisine, were approved with 53 yes votes and 11 abstentions.

The People's Congress of Guangdong Province held a public hearing and an advisory seminar in July, which agreed that the regulation should include a clause prohibiting the eating of wild animals but differences on the intent and feasibility of the regulation arose before submitting it for final approval.

"The final vote just reflects the viewpoints of the public," said Wang Xudong, member of the legal commission of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the province.

Under the new regulations, the clause to "not eat wild animals" was changed to "people should give up their habits of eating wild animals and not eat wild animals without quarantine and with easily-spread epidemics or other wildlife under legal protection".

The original version of the draft had no clause on eating wild animals but was changed after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) this year.

However, the legislation to ban eating wild animals caused a hot debate in Guangdong Province where the practice is steeped in centuries of tradition.

"People still have disputes on the range, motive and the feasibility of the new clause," said Li Huanxin, who is also a member of the legal commission of the legislature.

"But all agreed the legislation on wildlife consumption should go ahead despite the debate," he said.

The definition of "wild animals" was the key during the debate, in which some experts said the definition should be clarified in any legislation that bans eating wildlife.

"Domesticated animals and those raised in the wild are totally different," said Lu Jiahai, an expert of the provincial expert team against SARS.

"I can't find any reason to stop eating home-bred animals if they pass strict quarantine," Lu said.

His opinion has been received by some experts and local citizens, who thought the original draft was too absolute to be feasible and also not in accordance with some current Chinese laws, which encourage people to breed wild animals.

However, some experts and ordinary people said the eating of any wild animals should be prohibited since it can "cut the channel of transmission of epidemic diseases".

"We did not tangle too much in the definition of 'wild animals', " Li Huanxin said, adding that the laws on wild animal protection had clearly mandated a ban on eating wild animals.

"The emphasis of the regulation, which is an advocating one, was to encourage people to adopt better habits, so the concrete scopes and kinds of animals which can be eaten or not will not be included in this regulation," he said.

The wildlife cuisine of southern China's Guangdong Province is under fire from animal welfare activists and medical experts after the SARS coronavirus was traced to wild animals.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2003)