Ex-NBA Star Yao Ming Aims to Wean China Off Ivory and Shark Fins
BEIJING – Former NBA all-star center Yao Ming is now dishing out assists to much wilder targets.
After retiring from the Houston Rockets in 2011, Yao returned to China and set out to end his homeland's traditional appetite for endangered and threatened animal products.
As an ambassador for international conservation organization WildAid, Yao has campaigned to persuade his countrymen to give up the key ingredient in one of their traditional delicacies: shark–fin soup. The “I’m FINished with Fins” campaign, which also featured Jackie Chan, soccer star David Beckham and NBA player Jeremy Lin, has been credited with reducing the tens of millions of sharks killed for their fins each year in China by at least 50 percent.
Buoyed by the success of that campaign, Yao has now expanded his preservation efforts to rhinos and elephants, two species that have suffered massive population declines due to increased demand for ivory from the increasingly affluent Chinese market. However, a 2007 survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare found 70 percent of China people did not even know ivory comes from dead elephants. The Chinese word for ivory, “xiangya,” translates to “elephant teeth,” creating the misconception that ivory falls out and grows back naturally.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/ex-nba-star-yao-ming-aims-wean-china-ivory-shark-n177496
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