A FACTORY worker was sentenced to five years in jail for selling an endangered parrot species recently.

According to the verdict by Bao’an District People’s Court, Wang Peng sold six parrots, including two endangered green-cheeked conures, known scientifically as pyrrhura molinae, for 500 yuan (US$72) each to a buyer, surnamed Xie, in April 2016. The court also confiscated 3,000 yuan of Wang’s illicit income.

The court ruled that Wang was keeping the parrots to trade instead of for himself, as police found 45 parrots including 35 conures in Wang’s dormitory May 7 after the buyer was caught.

Ren Panpan, Wang’s wife, said in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily that they didn’t know the two parrots were endangered species, otherwise they wouldn’t have taken the risk.

According to Wang’s co-worker, identified as Cao, they found a parrot in their factory. It couldn’t fly, so Wang took it home and raised it with another one Wang had bought. The parrot soon laid two eggs, which hatched two baby parrots. Wang learned how to raise the parrots and their number multiplied to 45 before he was caught by police.

Cao said he was surprised when he learned that Wang had been sentenced to five years in jail for selling parrots, because Wang had caught the parrot to raise, not to trade.

In a letter to Ren, Wang expressed regret for selling the two parrots due to his ignorance of the law. He hoped he could be released on a suspended sentence as he had already been locked up for a year.

Wang has appealed to Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court and lawyer Xu Xin has agreed to defend him.

“The parrots bred through artificial propagation shouldn’t be treated as rare, endangered wildlife. There is no evidence showing that Wang wanted to sell the other 45 parrots that he was keeping,” Xu said in an interview.

“We should protect wildlife but we should seek a balance in Wang’s case as he didn’t cause damage to the habitat of the parrots,” Xu said. (Han Ximin)