Small fish, turtles and other amphibians are being sold in Beijing as mobile phone trinkets and key rings, to the chagrin of animal rights groups.
Kept in bags filled with colored, oxygenated water the animals cost around $1.50 each.
One vendor selling the animals outside of a Beijing subway station told CNN that the bag contained crystallized oxygen and nutrients.
She said that that the animals could live for days but also warned that they should be freed from the bag as soon as the air ran out or they would suffocate.
Among the animals being sold are young Chinese soft-shell turtles - the adult turtles are a popular dish in Chinese cooking.
The live trinkets have been condemned by animal rights groups who have highlighted the lack of animal protection laws in China.
"Lack of food and diminishing oxygen concentrations within both the water and the small amount of air in these plastic pouches will cause the animals to die in a relatively short period of time after the pouches are sealed," said David Neale, animal welfare director of Animals Asia.
"If a national animal protection law was enacted in China, such acts of cruelty could be prevented, and those who persist in causing harm and suffering to animals within their care could be prosecuted."
No matter how you look at it, the practice of forcing live animals into keychains is simply cruel. Unfortunately, in China there are no animal welfare laws preventing this outrageous treatment of living creatures. These animals are subjected to a slow death by suffocation in a watery grave.
Sign now to send a message to Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, urging him to help put a stop to this atrocious practice. Let the government of China know that this treatment of living, sentient beings will not stand with the rest of the world.
Kept in bags filled with colored, oxygenated water the animals cost around $1.50 each.
One vendor selling the animals outside of a Beijing subway station told CNN that the bag contained crystallized oxygen and nutrients.
She said that that the animals could live for days but also warned that they should be freed from the bag as soon as the air ran out or they would suffocate.
Among the animals being sold are young Chinese soft-shell turtles - the adult turtles are a popular dish in Chinese cooking.
The live trinkets have been condemned by animal rights groups who have highlighted the lack of animal protection laws in China.
"Lack of food and diminishing oxygen concentrations within both the water and the small amount of air in these plastic pouches will cause the animals to die in a relatively short period of time after the pouches are sealed," said David Neale, animal welfare director of Animals Asia.
"If a national animal protection law was enacted in China, such acts of cruelty could be prevented, and those who persist in causing harm and suffering to animals within their care could be prosecuted."
No matter how you look at it, the practice of forcing live animals into keychains is simply cruel. Unfortunately, in China there are no animal welfare laws preventing this outrageous treatment of living creatures. These animals are subjected to a slow death by suffocation in a watery grave.
Sign now to send a message to Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, urging him to help put a stop to this atrocious practice. Let the government of China know that this treatment of living, sentient beings will not stand with the rest of the world.
STOP ABUSE OF THIS ANIMALS!!!!! BARBARIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This kind of cruelty is why I will never visit China.
this is wrong I think this should be prison time for theses kind of people
this is so wrong, how would they like to be put on a key chain? This is animal cruelty
Don't try to tell me this is not a sick culture. Greedy, self serving, cruel & inhumane. How can supposedly civilized human beings treat these tiny beautiful defenseless animals so cruelly. Considering that they boil dogs alive, skin animals alive & club dogs to death, all for food for their worthless bodies. Someone should tell these people to learn to catch up with the civilized world & become human.
What sort of people buy these things?