Chinese food vlogger cooks, eats great white shark; gets fined $24,000

Often food vlogger go deep in their profession which lands them in trouble. Recently, Chinese authorities fined a food blogger of 125,000 yuan (S$24,000) after she posted a video showing her illegally buying and eating a great white shark, reported The Straits Times on 30 January.

According to the report, the food vlogger broke China’s wildlife protection laws when she purchased the animal in April 2022 and later consumed it.

officials in Nanchong, in the south-western province of Sichuan, have confirmed it, saying that the woman has been identified as Jin and goes by Tizi in her videos.

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The food vlogger paid 7,700 yuan on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao shopping site for the animal. the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified as a vulnerable species as its population has declined over a period of time.

Earlier in 2022, the woman posted videos on social media sites Douyin and Kuaishou and showed how she picked up the roughly 2m-long shark from a shop. She also posted of it being cooked and ate it. Following this, the clip went viral in China, with many complaining about cruelty to animals.

After this, the authorities started probing the matter in August. They collected the DNA tests from tissue remnants which confirmed it was a white shark. The authorities also arrested two individuals involved in catching and selling the animal.

In February 2020, China has imposed a total ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals, with an aim to preserve the species and help the authorities keeping a tab on deadly coronavirus to jump from animals to humans.