(Yicai Global) Feb. 21 -- Most of the Chinese disapprove of eating wild animals, the likely origin of the new coronavirus, according to Peking University's survey.

Some 97 percent of the more than 101,000 survey respondents said that they don't think it's right to eat wild animals, the report that the university's environmental protection and social development center, as well as some partnering organizations, published yesterday.

The report suggested that China should update its Wildlife Protection Law, which has not been changed since 1989, to adjust the scope of protected species and limits. That is something that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has begun to work on.

Many places, including northeastern Tianjin, southern Guangdong province, and southeastern Fujian province, have started cracking down on wildlife sales after it was discovered that Covid-19, which has claimed 2,239 lives in China, probably started spreading from a seafood market in Central China's Wuhan and that the original hosts may have been bats.

Almost 95 percent of the survey participants said that they would like China to ban the sale and use of wildlife in wet markets and restaurants. Nearly 80 percent of the people said that they don't want to use products made of wild animals but some considered wildlife to be essential in the fur industry and as ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine