Traffic of wildlife must end
WILDLIFE campaigners from animal charity Humane Society International (HSI) have called for an urgent worldwide ban on the wildlife trade after China announced it would prohibit the buying and selling of wild animals for food.
This in light of the mounting threat associated with the coronavirus. The capture, trade and butchery of wild animal species for human consumption happens across large parts of Asia and Africa such as Indonesia, India, Vietnam, West, Central and East Africa and Latin America, says the HSI.
It poses a threat of spreading zoonotic and potentially fatal diseases. Governments must take China’s lead and shut down the trade.
The HSI leadership in South Africa, Nepal, India, South Korea, Canada, the US, Australia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the UK, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica have joined the call for global action.
The capture and consumption of wild animals is a global trade that causes immense suffering for hundreds of thousands of animals every year, including endangered wildlife species being traded to the brink of extinction.
The trade can also spawn global health crises such as the coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome and the deadly bird flu. Wildlife markets are widespread and could easily be the start of disease outbreaks.
In the north-eastern states of India, wild species such as the Chinese pangolin and several species of wild birds are sold for human consumption. Bengal monitor lizard meat is also consumed across India, driven mainly by the superstitious belief that the fat stored in the tail can cure arthritis.
Meat from the Indian flap-shell turtle is also popular across the country, despite being listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. In some north Indian states, owl eyes are consumed for their perceived medicinal benefits for human vision.
Indonesia has hundreds of “extreme” animal markets where the conditions are the same as those described by scientists as the perfect breeding ground for new and deadly zoonotic viruses, such as coronaviruses.
Wild animals are sold and slaughtered in public and unsanitary conditions. The trade takes place alongside that of dogs and cats which itself has been shown to pose a risk of rabies transmission.
Given that dogs are caged and slaughtered alongside wild animals such as snakes, bats and rats, Indonesia must surely take preventative measures to ensure it does not become the next point of origin of a deadly virus. Similar risks can be observed in wild animal markets across the globe, especially in Asia and Africa.
The trade in wildlife is a global crisis that calls for global action, now.
Bushmeat, including that derived from primates, is consumed in many parts of Africa.
In South Africa, about 12 000 lions are captive bred in deplorable conditions to facilitate the export of lion skeletons to Southeast Asia for tiger bone wine. Lions are hosts to the tuberculosis virus, which can survive in bones ground to powder.
This week, the National People’s Congress, the Chinese national legislature, elevated a temporary ban on wildlife trade for human consumption. The announcement, issued as an emergency measure, creates a comprehensive ban on the trade in terrestrial wild animals bought and sold for food.
Roode for the Humane Society International president.