BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese health authorities are putting a stop to restaurants serving chickens which have been bitten to death by poisonous snakes and cooked up for a supposedly detoxing meal.

The dish, served by a small number of eateries in the southern province of Guangdong and the southwestern city of Chongqing, has generated a storm of publicity and controversy in the Chinese media and amongst bloggers.

A video showing a cook holding a snake and forcing it to bite a live chicken until it dies has been widely circulated online, (http:/you.video.sina.com.cn/b/21145091-1405053100.html) generating mainly angry comments.

"It's disgusting and really cruel," wrote one poster on the popular portal sina.com.cn.

"Not only is it cruel and blood-thirsty, but totally amoral," the Chongqing Business Daily cited a neighbor to one of the restaurants as saying.

Health authorities in Guangdong have already told restaurants to stop serving "poisonous snake-bitten chicken" and now those in Chongqing have joined in.

"Although nobody has been poisoned, this at the very least is an irregular way of slaughtering poultry," the business newspaper quoted a local health official as saying.

One dish, prized among some in Guangdong, is monkey brains scooped from a live animal, which has regularly upset animal rights campaigners in the West.

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I had to edit the title because I didn't catch the word used instead of chicken

The other resturants that complained were jealous because, they didn't think of it first.

What animal did they scoop monkey brains out of??

I watched that video on Scenes or Death. There was a hole in the table and a little basket to hold the monkey. The patrons smacked the monkeys head but not quite hard enough to crack it's skull. The waiter helped them out with it. You could see the steam coming out of the open head while they scooped out the brain.

I saw a film once that showed people sitting around a round table with the monkey in the middle and they ... oh crap I can't even type it with out gagging. Some sick ass customs in this world. Good for them for outlawing it.

Yes, looks like we saw the same film.. it's disgusting.

(eating live monkey brains)



This is horrible. Why does the article say "animal rights groups from the west" are upset by this? They make it sound like easterners and "non-animal-rights-people" think this is okay. Shouldn't everyone with an ounce of empathy find this disgusting?