After filming a video of herself illegally buying, cooking, and eating a great white shark, a Chinese food blogger was fined $18,500 (Rs 15 lakh). Authorities found out that the person on social media who went by the name Tizi was actually Jin Moumou.
According to a?report in the Independent, authorities in Nanchong have released a statement claiming that she purchased the great white shark in April 2022 and released a video of herself cooking and eating the wild animal in July of the previous year.?
The statement also claims that she uploaded the video.
According to the publication, the video, which was shared on Douyin (the equivalent of TikTok in China), violated the "Wild Animal Protection Law of the People's Republic of China."
Local media said that Tizi claimed to have obtained the shark through "legal channels." Still, the local agriculture bureau later called her story "inconsistent with the facts" and reported the matter to the police.
In the video, the blogger can be seen striking a pose in front of a shop with a shark roughly six feet long. The head of the animal is prepared by simmering it in a stew, while the rest of the animal is halved, seasoned, and grilled.
"It may look vicious, but its meat is truly very tender,"?she said, tearing large chunks from the whale's meat with her teeth.
The officials reportedly stated to the publication that the blogger purchased the shark from Alibaba's Taobao online shopping website for 7,700 yuan, equivalent to 93,295 Indian rupees.?
The World Wildlife Fund has reclassified the great white shark as a "vulnerable" species. Beginning in February 2020, China prohibited all wild animals' purchase, sale, and consumption.
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