A woman from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, prayed for her family through life release two years ago. (Photo/Recap from Elephant News)
In Buddhism, releasing lives is a good deed to accumulate merit, but releasing lives blindly and at will will kill more lives. A woman surnamed Xu in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China, wanted to pray for her family by releasing her life two years ago because her family was in poor health. So she spent 90,400 RMB (about NT$400,000) and ordered 25,000 catties of “Jintooth Hu” from a fishmonger. As a result, the entire lake was covered with dead fish, and it took the staff 10 days to process 20,000 catties of fish.
According to the “Elephant News” report, Ms. Xu’s release resulted in the death of tens of thousands of catfish. The whole lake was covered with corpses and was full of stench. It took the staff 10 days to salvage and process 20,208 catties of dead catfish. During the period, the salvage fee, storage fee, harmless disposal fee and other emergency treatment expenses totaled more than 90,000 yuan, which Ms. Xu was required to pay. However, the procuratorial organ believed that such a punishment was not strong enough, so it filed a civil public interest lawsuit with the court.
It turned out that these catfish belonged to alien species, carnivorous omnivorous fish with extremely fast growth and strong invasion ability. But because it is a tropical fish, it is suitable for living in an environment with a temperature above 7 degrees. The temperature of the lake water on the day of release was below 0 degrees, so it did not cause harm to the entire ecosystem.
The court held that Ms. Xu and the fishmonger constituted a joint infringement and should jointly bear 35,000 yuan in compensation for ecological and environmental damage, as well as 5,000 yuan in punitive damages. This is China’s first civil public interest litigation case involving the illegal introduction of alien species, and both buyers and sellers were fined.