Live Animal Markets: Endless Shocking Footage from Asia
PETA demands: WHO must close unsanitary markets where monkeys, dogs, birds, and bats are killed.
The novel coronavirus continues to infect countless people throughout Asia.
Now PETA is releasing up-to-the-minute video footage from its Asian partner organisation, showing that live animal markets across the region are continuing to operate as before.
Bustling Market Activity Despite the Pandemic
Although health experts believe that the virus originated at such a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, PETA Asia was able to film bustling market activity just days ago in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Among the animals sold at these live animal markets are bats, which have been linked to COVID-19, and civets, which were associated with SARS.
The footage shows live animals crammed into stacked cages while their excrement accumulates on the floor below. Vendors and customers can also be seen walking across blood-soaked floors in flip-flops and handling raw pork with their bare hands. Blood and animal body parts litter the floors and display surfaces. Flies swarm around the carcasses of dogs and pigs. Chickens and ducks awaiting slaughter sit in cages so small they can barely lift their heads. Bags of live frogs are placed next to the dismembered bodies of their dead counterparts. Some of the animals are processed into meat or used in traditional Chinese medicine, others are killed for their skins or sold as “pets.” PETA is urging the World Health Organization to immediately shut down live animal markets. PETA Asia has also submitted this demand to the relevant authorities in the countries where the documented markets operate.
PETA Calls for Closure of Live Animal Markets
“Blood-drenched live animal markets full of sick and stressed animals are well-known breeding grounds for pathogens that can be transmitted from one species to another. So why are these markets still open?” said Jason Baker, Senior Vice President at PETA Asia. “Further pandemics are inevitable if we learn nothing from this one. That is why PETA is urging authorities to put an end to these markets, which are as cruel as they are dangerous.” Such practices are a global animal welfare issue.
PETA points out that other disease outbreaks — such as swine flu, bird flu, AIDS, and BSE — have also been linked to the capturing and farming of animals for food. Part of the organization’s mission statement holds that animals are not ours to eat or to exploit in any other way. PETA campaigns against speciesism — a worldview that regards humans as superior to all other living beings. Learn more about animal rights on wildbeimwild.com.
