Influencer Fined for Eating Endangered Great White Shark

"Don't be fooled by its scary appearance, its meat is very tender."

Smells Fishy

A Chinese vlogger who thought it was a great idea to purchase, grill, and eat a whole great white shark, has been fined by her country for doing so, CBS News reports — testament to the fact that people are willing to go to extreme lengths for fame on the internet.

According to a statement from local authorities in Nanchong, a city in Sichuan province, the influencer, who goes by the handle Tizi, has been fined the equivalent of roughly $18,500 after she posted a video about her shark-eating journey to China's Douyin video microblogging platform last year.

Tender Meat

The Nanchong Market Supervision Bureau claimed in its statement that the girl, whose real name is Jin, purchased the endangered animal from the Alibaba-owned e-commerce marketplace Taobao for the equivalent of $1,100 in April 2022.

She subsequently posted videos of herself cooking and eating the animal in July of that year.

"Don't be fooled by its scary appearance," Tizi says in a translation of the infamous video, "its meat is very tender."

Following an investigation that involved testing tissue samples for DNA, authorities said they found that the animal in question had indeed been a great white shark, a species that is protected under China's Wild Animal Protection Law.

Along with fining Jin, authorities also arrested two men they accused of having sold the endangered shark to Jin.

Animal Cruelty

As serious as this case is, it's far from the first time users have caught flak over animals displayed on Douyin's sister site TikTok.

Last year, a TikToker based in the UK jokingly claimed he was building a "frog army" when he found 1.4 million frog eggs in a pond near his house — and quickly was shot down by experts who warned of dangers to the local ecosystem.

The "frog army" stunt was topped by an American user who said he released 100 million ladybugs in New York City's Central Park and subsequently alleged that he'd fled the country after being served a lawsuit about it.

Needless to say, all of these situations are not only gross, but they also serve as an unfortunate reminder of how stupid and cruel people can be.

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