A man has been given a one-year jail term for poisoning sparrows and selling them to restaurants and barbecue stands, a Beijing court ruled on Monday.

 

Bai Qingli, a migrant from Baoding city in neighboring Hebei province, has been accused of killing 647 sparrows with poison in Yufa Township of Daxing District in Beijing, an area where hunting is banned.

 

Bai said he bought poisonous bait from collectors and sold the birds to them for 0.3 yuan (3.9 US cent) each. The collectors then sold the sparrows to eateries.

 

The Daxing District Court convicted Bai of poaching. It also said Bai's conduct posed a threat to public health because the traces of poison in the birds are harmful to people who eat them.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)