Yao Ming increasing activity for animal rights

via NYTimes. Yao Ming paid a visit to the Houston Zoo yesterday and shared his position on animal rights with many students. “You have little pets in your house — dogs, cats, all kinds,” Yao said. “Just imagine your relationship with your pets. That’s the same thing, the same kind of thing, that the African people have with those big animals. They’re living in the same country, just like in the same house. Yao’s increase in activity for animal rights was ignited by his home countries delicacy, “Shark-Fin” soup. The former Houston Rockets center, in town in advance of this weekend’s All-Star festivities, has become increasingly active in animal-rights causes since he retired from basketball because of repeated injuries in July 2011. Late in his playing career, Yao became a vocal — and the most famous — critic of shark-fin soup, a centuries-old delicacy in China. He began actively campaigning in 2006 against “finning” by fishermen — carving off the shark’s valuable fins an