The Chinese culture, ingrained for thousands of years, is to eat almost anything that is safe.... and cautiously eat things that aren't. They have not been groomed by environmentalists, either. That's the last Ring Eared Flopsy on earth?... well we better eat it before someone else does.
They are not used to a surplus of food and not worrying about what they will eat next year, month, week.
A slow accumulation of disposable income would naturally quell the desire to blow it on luxuries, but the sudden influx of money from walmart has allowed them the flexibility to sample exotic critters, only rich people had before.
What struck me as telling was;
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The animals - which weighed 13 tonnes - were taken to port, doused with water and sent to an animal welfare centre. "We have received some animals," said an office worker at the Guangdong Wild Animal Protection Centre. "We are waiting to hear from the authorities what we should do with them."
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Even the professional animal rescuers, don't seem to have natural instincts, to save these animals. They have to wait for orders. Sad.