The bizarre video shows police officers apprehending a man after he allegedly skinned a protected snow leopard and made a meal out of it.
Surveillance camera footage shared by police in the town of Wuqia, in the Xinjiang autonomous territory in northwest China, showed officers securing the animal’s skull, paws, and skin on 25th January.
The parts were reportedly stored in bags in a shepherd’s home, after the man, surnamed Ah, was spotted wearing a belt made of the leopard’s tail around his waist, prompting police to suspect illegal hunting activity.
Upon arriving at the house, police located only Ah’s wife and children who told them that he had gone out for a meal.
Cops reportedly waited until the evening when the man eventually returned home, seemingly out of breath.
One of the officers then said: “The sheep have been back for a long time, where have you gone? Do you know why we came to find you?”
To that Ah responded: “I went to the toilet. I don’t know why you came to see me.”
Officers proceeded to question the man about the belt, who initially claimed he had purchased it.
However, he shortly confessed that he caught the animal with the help of a hunting trap, many of which he placed around his farm, to protect his sheep from wolves in November 2021.
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Police said in a statement obtained by AsiaWire: “When checking whether the hunting trap contained prey, he found that a snow leopard was dead with its left front leg caught in the trap.
“So he took the snow leopard home, used a knife to skin it into pieces, and ate the flesh. He then hid the snow leopard’s skin, claws, and skull.”
Ah told the officers that after cooking and eating the animal, he ground its bones into powder, mixed them with water, and drank the resulting liquid as a refreshment.
He meanwhile dried the animal’s skin on the sun and crafted a blanket out of it. He later hid its claws and skull in a warehouse and had planned to use them as home decorations.
Finally, he fashioned a belt from the animal’s tail, which he wore for two years before someone reported him to the police.
Ah also admitted that he had just returned from a nearby mountain where he hid the leopard’s remains after seeing the police cruiser parked in front of the house.
He said: “I was very scared at the time. I remembered that you had previously publicised that snow leopards are national first-level protected animals, and hunting snow leopards will be punished.”
Following the interrogation, Ah was arrested and is currently in custody. Police have reportedly launched an investigation into the case.
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The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), commonly known as the ounce, is a feline species native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia.
It is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because the global population is estimated to number fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.
The population is expected to decline about 10 per cent by 2040.
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Story By: Georgina Jedikovska, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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