A room suspected of use in feeding cobras without approval is closed by local police in Nanjing City, the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. (Photo/CFP)
An unlicensed breeding farm in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, has been shut down after hundreds of toxic cobras escaped.
Thepaper.cn reported that the farm, owned by Sun rented it to Qin, but it is Qin's father who manages it, local police confirmed. They are now under investigation.
There were around 1,500 monocle cobras imported through the Shao Guan customs in south China's Guangdong Province.
Xu Huiqiang, from the wild animal protection center in Jiangsu, said that farms must fulfill certain requirements for monocle cobras. The snakes have economic value but are extremely toxic. The farm has reportedly been running without the fulfilled requirements.
Around one hundred of the cobras have been found and 50 of them are still remaining at large. Local authorities have organized over a hundred villagers to search areas nearby the farm for the snakes.
