Coronavirus Pandemic

After the Coronavirus, China Moves to Kick Its Exotic Meat Habit

China is clamping down on the sale of wildlife for human consumption

Chow Ka-ling, owner of Shia Wong Hip snake restaurant, handles snake meat in the restaurant's kitchen in the Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, China, on Oct. 19, 2015.
Justin Chin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ou Yang is having a hard time finding snake to eat.

"A very famous restaurant specialized in cooking snakes in my city already stopped providing such dishes," Ou told NBC News from Foshan, in southern China, where snake has long been regarded as a delicacy. "They are all banned now."

As the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic, China is clamping down on the sale of wildlife for human consumption amid concerns about another outbreak of a zoonotic disease. What began as a temporary ban to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 is making legislative leaps to a broader ban on the practice — a move international public health and wildlife experts have been urging for years.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Contact Us