The Forestry Bureau of south China's Guangdong Province issued an emergency notice Monday evening to tighten its control on the breeding, domestication and utilization of wildlife.

All licenses issued for wildlife hunting, transportation, buying and selling as well as certificates issued for wildlife imports and exports have to be revoked without delay, said the notice.

All on-going tour performances of circus troupes must be canceled and the traveling troupes be put into compulsory confinement instantly.

According to the notice, only circus troupes with fixed stages in zoos are allowed to continue performing.

In addition, a massive campaign will be launched to register all monkeys, snakes, bats and civet cats in Guangdong province's breeding farms. No one is allowed to dispose of them without contacting relevant departments, and anyone who deliberately violates the rules will be penalized according to law, said the notice.

The forestry bureau will also team up with other departments to investigate all markets, restaurants, ports, railway stations, airports and docks. Sanitation authorities will quarantine seized wild animals which, once proven healthy and alive, will be set free. Dead or unhealthy wildlife will be disposed of.

Sources with the Guangdong Forestry Bureau cited the measure asone designed to better protect wildlife and to avoid the spread of any possible diseases through animals to humans.

(People's Daily May 27, 2003)