Panda poaching sparks online fury in China

BEIJING: Ten people were detained over the seizure of panda body parts in southern China, prompting a furious reaction on social media.
North Korea-style execution by anti-aircraft gun, firing squad or beheading were among suggested punishments for the men held after authorities recovered panda skull parts, leg bones, pelt, a gall bladder and 9.75kg of meat.
The discussions garnered tens of thousands of hits.
In China, where the animals are seen to hold great cultural and symbolic value, hunting the animals carries a prison term of 10 years to life, or a death sentence in aggravating circumstances.
Two brothers surnamed Wang allegedly hunted and shot the female in Yunnan, a province where the rare bear has not been sighted for centuries, on Dec 4.
The Wangs and their hound were tracking a sheep-killing predator across a hillside when one saw and shot what they identified as only a "big animal," the Xinhua news agency reported.
The injured panda climbed a tree where Wang shot it again.
Wang later reportedly sold the meat and feet to a trader and it then changed hands between five more people, Xinhua said.
Of the 10 suspects detained, three had been placed under formal arrest on related charges, a forestry official told Xinhua.
Investigators searched the Zhaotong area after the shooting and found panda footprints and droppings. The forestry administration aims to establish whether other pandas now reside there, Xinhua said.
Some 1,864 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the western and central China mountains of Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. More than 300 live in captivity. – dpa