Even SPCA President Richard Avanzino, who helped craft the guidelines, ended up calling for the state to revisit the ban, saying he himself had seen turtles sliced open and still writhing on cutting boards. In an interview last week, Pius Lee reiterated that animals displayed live in food markets are not supposed to be pets. These are pro-animal groups I've been dealing with for years. But some animals are pets, and some are for food consumption. Their attitude is difficult since they don't want to separate the two.
Different people have different eating habits.
Honda's legislation seeks to pre-empt not only a proposed import ban but also anticipated ballot wars. Citing a successful statewide initiative that banned the sale of horse meat for human consumption last year, Chinatown advocates say they fear frogs and turtles could be next-and that the movement won't stop there. Chinatown advocates are pushing for the state commission to expand fishing guidelines to include Chinese mitten crabs, whose ovaries are prized as a special delicacy. Despite a ban on importing and keeping live mitten crabs, which are native to estuaries and rivers of Korea and China, the crustaceans have thrived in Sacramento Valley river waters in recent years. One female crab can produce up to a million eggs over a lifetime.