By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
A man, identified as Jeon, has been arrested for eating soup made of a snake caught illegally, becoming the first victim of the revised law protecting wild animals.
Under the new Wild Animal Protection Law, those who eat foods of illegally trafficked animals can face up to a one-year jail term or 5 million won ($5,000) in fines. Jeon is the first who will face criminal charges since the implementation of the revised law in 2005.
He was caught on the scene after he drank a pack of snake soup as he was buying a box of it for 500,000 won, according to the Ministry of Environment.
It is banned to sell and buy snakes that are illegally caught on mountains, while eating soup made of snakes raised at home is permitted.
Illegal trafficking of wild animals has shown no signs of decreasing.
``There are still a large number of people who believe foods of certain wild species such as snake are good for one's health,'' Cho Yong-jea, an official from the ministry, said. ``Demand for wild animals leads to steady practices of illegal trafficking.''
In the ministry's large-scale crackdown on illegal trafficking of wild animals, they caught 764 people for illegal trafficking of wild animals and referred them to the prosecution.
Most of them killed the animals using an air gun, making up 93 percent of all the cases, and over 40 percent of poaching took place in South Chungcheong Province and South Jeolla Province where wild life remains preserved compared to other regions.
The ministry said most poached animals were illegally traded in restaurants and natural medicine stores and advised people to verify where non-livestock animals come from before they buy or eat them in such places.