On October 12, volunteers for the protection of birds from Tianjin destroyed a group of birdcages in a village of Tangshan city in Northern China's Hebei province and saved 1,245 migrant birds.

Apart from volunteers, forestry law enforcement officials and the agriculture and animal husbandry bureau of the Lutai economic Development Zone are also taking part in cracking down on buying, raising, fattening and killing migrant birds.

Officials seized 2,507 frozen migrant birds and destroyed 300 birdcages.

According to Chinese law, capturing and killing wild migrant birds, which is done for huge profits, is an unlawful act that poses a threat to ecological balance and creates a breeding ground for disease.

A volunteer holds a dead migrant bird [Photo by Yue Yuewei/Xinhua]

The volunteer discovers migrant birds in a refrigerator [Photo by Yue Yuewei/Xinhua]

Volunteers free migrant birds [Photo by Yue Yuewei/Xinhua]

Volunteers and other staff destroy birdcages [Photo by Yue Yuewei/Xinhua]

At one location, birdcages were stacked in three rooms [Photo by Yue Yuewei/Xinhua]