CULTIVATION or not, ‘wild cravings’ continue in Asia | Coronavirus News Plague

Continuing efforts to curb the sale of wildlife and wildlife have failed to reverse the wetlands in Asia Pacific, although the region is struggling to cope with the largest and most devastating COVID-19 wave since the outbreak began.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about three quarters of all infectious diseases are transmitted to humans.

The program of SARS virusFor example, which killed 800 people between 2002 and 2004, it is thought to have started with bats before they spread to civets at a wildlife market in Foshan, China.

In April, after their Chinese research team completed the fish market in Wuhan was the first route by COVID-19, WHO did unprecedented efforts to persuade countries to stop the sale of seized wildlife from marine markets as an emergency measure. .

Asian animal welfare groups have been demanding the same for years, he said unsanitary conditions and cruelty how wild and domestic animals are kept in wet markets and ideal breeding grounds for infectious diseases.

A number of Asian countries have enacted new laws banning the sale of ‘wild animals’ and reducing the effects on wet markets during the epidemic.

But almost all efforts to combat this trade have failed because of the popularity of wildlife among some Asians, the economic importance of the region, and the lack of restraint.

Banning the trade is “a difficult task,” says Li Shuo, an international consultant at Greenpeace in China.

On-again, off-again

Last July, a Presidential decree was issued in Vietnam to stop the importation of wildlife and impose severe penalties on offenders, including 15 years in prison.

But a survey last month by PanNature, an NGO, found no change in Vietnam’s wildlife trade. Marine markets in the Mekong Delta and other parts of the country can be found still selling turtles, birds, and endangered wildlife.

In Indonesia, where the worst epidemic in Asia at the COVID-19 with more than 2.5 million cases and at least 67,000 people, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has been trying to persuade government officials to close down the country’s animal markets since the epidemic began.

Officials in Solo, Central Java, were among those identified, ordering the killing of hundreds of bats in Depok, one of the country’s largest bird, dog and wildlife markets. But the victory was short-lived.

“They brutally killed hundreds of bats when COVID-19 struck for the first time and stopped selling them,” said Lola Webber, co-founder of the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia Coalition. “But from what I have heard from my source, it is now happening as usual.”

Marison Guciano, founder of Flight, an Indonesian bird-protection NGO, confirms Webber’s allegations. “I was there a week ago and they are still selling bats and snakes, rabbits, turtles, ferrets, beavers, cats, dogs, hamsters, hedgehogs, parrots, owls, crows and eagles.”

Rats sold at a market in Langowan in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi in June [Courtesy of Four Paws]

The same thing is happening in the water markets in Indonesia.

In commemoration of World Zoonoses Day last week, the Four Paws animal protection team released photos taken in June showing hundreds of bats, rats, dogs, snakes, birds and other animals for sale at three different markets in the Northern Sulawesi area 2,000km (1,243 miles) northeast of Solo.

History repeats itself

In April and May last year, just a few months after the outbreak began, PETA began visiting wildlife markets known to sell wildlife in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and China.

“We were expecting new laws to be enacted but we saw that it was a business as usual, with all sorts of species in dirty cages, some living, some dying, sometimes in the same cages,” said PETA Asia spokesman Nirali Shah “These areas are dangerous and stressful for animals, which makes their immune system vulnerable and makes them vulnerable to diseases that can jump off living organisms and then into humans.

“In some markets we have seen animals being taken from barns, slaughtered at a table covered in blood, and workers wearing no gloves at all. The combination of dangerous substances is like a bomb waiting for a new epidemic, ”he said.

In China, where a complete ban on trade and wild drinks released in October last year when the coronavirus grew in Wuhan, things have changed but little, according to Shah.

“You will no longer see foreign wildlife being sold openly in wet Chinese markets. But they still sell all kinds of birds in unsanitary conditions. And in many markets we have found that if you want a certain meat, no matter what it is, the sellers can get it even if they are banned. ”

China banned the sale and feeding of wild animals after the coronavirus – believed to be the origin of the bat – emerged in Wuhan. NGOs say it is possible to get banned animals if you know who to ask [Alex Plavevski/EPA]

This is not the first time China has tried to tackle wildlife trade.

In 2002, the wild markets were closed due to SARS but reopened later due to economic constraints. In 2016, the Chinese Academy of Engineers commemorated the country’s animal market for $ 76bn, with wildlife worth $ 19bn annually and employs 6.3 million people in China.

That’s right

In Malaysia, wildlife and wildlife are sometimes sold in water markets prior to the epidemic. But it is more available through direct sales and restaurants.

In August last year, retired Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador gave state police one month to ensure that their areas did not have banned restaurants selling wild meat. The Department of Wildlife was advised to assist the police.

“Don’t tell me I have 300 to 500 people in the area, there are no restaurants and no outdoor meat processing facilities are not available?” Abdul Hamid said at the time.

A list of wildlife seizures that follow in markets, restaurants and public houses.

Elizabeth John, a spokesperson for Kuala Lumpur at TRAFFIC, an NGO that fights illegal wildlife trade, says the uprising is a sign of success and failure.

“Creating a cohesive team between the police and wildlife officers, should be the right approach,” he said. “But as we have seen the seizures continue even though the epidemic shows that the warnings have not changed the minds of consumers. Despite the dangers, the craving for wildlife is still there. ”