ALL WET: Watch corrupt W.H.O. health officer defend horrific live animal markets amid growing calls for ban
The sale of wild animals including bats, rats, and reptiles is continuing unchecked to the huge frustration of animal rights groups seeking a ban to the trade.
GEORGE KNOWLES: In parts of China and regions of Southeast Asia, live animal markets and the wildlife trade continues despite growing international calls for tighter restrictions on “wet” markets and the use of wildlife in traditional medicine. The novel coronavirus outbreak is believed to have originated at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China and spread to humans due to their close proximity with wild animals.
A new campaign to Stop The Wildlife Trade comes as millions of people around the world mobilise for the first time online on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day to tackle this year’s theme of climate action. Environmentalists have warned of the inextricable links between climate change, biodiversity loss and zoonotic diseases, such as the coronavirus, fearing it will not be the last pandemic to wreak havoc on humanity…
Despite 6,760 coronavirus infections and 590 deaths across Indonesia, the sale of wild animals including bats, rats, and reptiles was last week continuing unchecked to the huge frustration of animal welfare groups seeking to bring at least a temporary halt to the trade. Carcasses of different species were seen chopped and thrown together on tables…
Dr Richard S Ostfeld, a disease ecologist and senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, told The Independent: “The risk of a zoonotic virus jumping to people is mostly tied to excretions from infected wildlife, including saliva, urine and feces… He added: “The health risk is in the housing of various species of wildlife, which don’t co-occur in nature, in very close quarters and in unhygienic conditions. Under these conditions, animals are stressed and shedding pathogens, which can be easily transmitted to other animals and to people”…
Jill Robinson, founder and CEO of Animals Asia which runs sanctuaries in China and Vietnam for bears rescued from the bile trade, said: “We shouldn’t be relying on wildlife products like bear bile to combat a deadly virus that appears to have originated from wildlife.” Instead she suggested: “Wildlife markets and farms in Asia should be permanently closed down. This latest virus outbreak is signalling a catastrophic imbalance surrounding our treatment and exploitation of wild species, and nature is fighting back”. SOURCE…
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