The Chinese Wild-Animal Industry and Wet Markets Must Go.

March 19, 2020 2:36 PM

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/the-chinese-wild-animal-industry-and-wet-markets-must-go/

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, in effect the executive committee of the Chinese Communist Party, in late February issued an edict banning the country’s “wet markets,” including those in Wuhan, the source of the current COVID-19 outbreak.

The statement notes that “it is necessary to strengthen market supervision, resolutely ban and severely crack down on illegal wildlife markets and trade, and control major public health risks from the source.” The Straits Times of Singapore has reported that eight laws have been passed in the last week. We have no details on the contents of the legislation. It’s too soon to know, though, whether we have been down this road before.

After the SARS outbreak in 2003, which was traced to a wet market in the southern Guangdong Province, a temporary ban on wet markets and the wild-animal industry were put in place. In July of that year, the World Health Organization declared the SARS virus contained, and in August the Chinese government lifted the ban.

Wet markets are found the world over, typically open-air sites selling fresh meat, seafood, and produce. The meats often are butchered and trimmed on-site. Markets in China have come in for justifiable condemnation because of the way they’ve evolved, commingling traditional livestock with a wide variety of wild animals, including exotic and endangered species.

Many are quite unsanitary, with blood, entrails, excrement, and other waste creating the conditions for disease that migrates from animals to people through virus, bacteria, and other forms of transmission. Such “zoonotic diseases” that have emerged from China and other regions of the world include Ebola, HIV, bird flu, swine flu, and SARS.

The wild animals that mix with more common livestock — poultry, swine, and seafood — form a deadly combination.

And, as has been well reported by Vox and others, wild-animal farming has a long history in China, emerging after disastrous decades of state control of rural production under Mao Zedong. By the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, tens of millions of Chinese citizens had died of starvation under a system that could not produce enough food for China’s population.

Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, in the late 1970s lifted state controls on rural farming to allow peasant farmers to provide for their own sustenance. Rats, bats, civet cats, pangolins, and other wild animals became staples of rural farming. To acknowledge and even encourage this, the government enacted laws that protected “the lawful rights of those engaged in the development or utilization of wildlife resources.”

Over time, this led to the breeding and distribution of these animals, and small rural outposts developed into larger-scale operations.

Add to this the use of wild animals not only for consumption but as the supposedly magic ingredients in tonics and alternative medicines, and it is obvious that what began as subsistence farming for the rural poor has developed into a substantial industry.

Wuhan, a city most Americans had never heard of before this year, is larger than New York City.

So far, we may just be seeing a repeat of the “crackdown” after the SARS epidemic, which was quickly and quietly lifted. We do not know the nature of the current ban.

And can we even trust Beijing to keep such bans in place, particularly with a slowing economy and persistent rural poverty? Also, what exactly is banned? It should be all aspects of the wild-animal trade — breeding, transporting, and marketing.

There should be permanent closure of the wet markets, given the government’s obvious inability or unwillingness to regulate them.

Such a comprehensive approach would be a reversal of decades of government policy and market practice, but when we get through this crisis and the toll it will take on the world, we will owe it to the memory of those we lose that there be a global, sustained push to see these practices ended, everywhere.

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Full post with many additional links can be viewed at:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/03/25/eu-over-35-ngos-across-europe-add-their-voice-to-those-of-meps-calling-for-action-on-live-animal-transports/

Further to the post by Venus on the issue of live animal transports being delayed for hours at EU borders; https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/03/25/eu-if-you-do-nothing-to-solve-a-problem-you-are-part-of-the-problem-yourself/ , then we can provide you with additional information as reported in the ‘Brussels Times’ on Monday 23/3/20.

As well as important input from 42 MEP’s, we have witnessed an open letter from no less than 35 animal welfare NGO’s writing to the EU Commission calling (on the EU) to ban the transport of farm animals to non-EU countries, as well as intra EU journeys that last over 8 hours.

Below is a copy of the article from Monday’s Brussels Times.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/eu-affairs/102190/coronavirus-humans-suffer-but-also-animals-in-transport-over-borders/

Coronavirus: Humans suffer but also animals in transport over borders

Monday, 23 March 2020

Animal welfare organisations protested on Friday against a European Commission decision to allow transport of livestock between member states and to non-EU countries despite the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Compassion in World Farming and over 35 animal welfare NGOs across Europe wrote in an open letter (20 March) to agriculture Ministers and animal transport contact points of all EU member states that the Commission decision disregard the problems imposed on the health and welfare of farm animals being transported, especially those transported between EU and non-EU countries.

An EU regulation prohibits transport to be carried out in a way that is likely to cause undue suffering to the animals involved. In addition, the regulation states that all necessary arrangements should be made in advance to minimise the length of the journey and meet animals’ needs during the journey

In their letter, the NGOs raised problems at different borders last week. Vehicles with farm animals are being refused entry to Croatia. There have been long traffic queues at the border between Lithuania and Poland and queues on the German side of the border with Poland leading to waiting times of several hours.

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Vehicles with farm animals are also getting caught up in very long queues at the exit point between Bulgaria and Turkey – drivers transporting farm animals have reported that they needed three hours to move 300 m inside the border.

Queues at borders risk stopping medical supplies and health professionals from getting through. It is even less likely that it will be possible to attend to the welfare of animals caught up in these queues.

The animal welfare organization call on the EU to ban the transport of farm animals to non-EU countries, as well as journeys that last over 8 hours.

“The trade in live animals threatens not only the health and well-being of the animals, but it also threatens our health,” said Olga Kikou, Compassion in World Farming’s Head of EU Office.

“The drivers, animal handlers, vets, civil servants and their families can easily get infected. Unlike others who enter and exit the EU, they are not required to be in quarantine. We are putting them and ourselves at risk.”

The European Commission did not reply in time to requests for a response to the letter.

Update:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday afternoon (23 March) that the measures introduced to slow down the spread of the virus have also slowed down and sometimes paralysed transport.

In a communication today on “Green Lanes”, the Commission requested from the member states to designate, without delay, all the relevant internal border-crossing points on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) as “green lane” border crossings. The communication does not address the issue of animal transports but can speed up all transports.

The crossings should be open to all freight vehicles, whatever goods they are carrying. Crossing the border, including any checks and health screening, should not take more than 15 minutes.

All freight vehicles and drivers should be treated in a non-discriminatory manner, irrespective of the origin, destination, or country of registration of the vehicle, or of the nationality of the driver. Member states should not distinguish between vehicles carrying goods for use in their territory and those merely transiting.

The Brussels Times

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When talking about penguins, most people automatically have the image of the emperor penguin in their heads. They are so distinctive with their cream-white bellies, the shiny black head, back, tail and wings and the golden yellow pattern on the beak, head and chest.

The emperor penguin is simply magnificent! At 1.15 m, it is also the largest of the 17 species of penguins and also the only bird that inhabits Antarctica all year round – even for rearing young animals, during which they wind in freezing temperatures of up to – 60 ° C and snow storms endured up to 200 km / h.

In order not to cool down, they hug each other in large groups and keep themselves and the others warm. Alternately, they slide into the warm interior of the group and share the task of standing on the edge as a wind damper. This ensures the survival of the whole group.

In the sea, the emperor penguins can dive farther than any other bird up to 564 m and remain under water for 20 minutes.

When fleeing predators and hunting fish, octopus or krill, they can reach speeds of 3.4 m / s. Natural enemies are giant petrels, skua, sea leopards and orcas.

Man-made threats include climate change, overfishing, pollution of the oceans from microplastics, ghost nets, leaking oil, chemicals or radioactive material.

Most of the breeding colonies are on solid sea ice plates that freeze to the land mass in autumn and slowly break open in spring.

We know of emperor penguins that have walked 280 km to reach the open sea.

However, the rising temperatures caused by global warming will shrink the available breeding areas and overfishing reduces the food supply.

In return, they are among the penguin species that are easiest to observe, because they do not live far away in Antarctica, but close to New Zealand and Australian cities.

For a long time, biologists had considered these two populations as a single species – and were wrong.

They found a very strong genetic pattern according to which the New Zealand penguins differed significantly from the Australian penguins.

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Last night, 42 MEPs sent a letter to the EU Commission.

Many animal transports have been at the border for hours as a result of the border closure measures in the context of the Covid 19 virus across borders by drivers, zookeepers and border guards.

To stop animal suffering, we call on the Commission to:

-Suspension of all exports of live farm animals by land and sea to non-EU countries

-Suspension of all live livestock transports on journeys of more than 8 hours between Member States

-Ensure rapid communication between senior veterinarians and national contact points to help organizers of cattle breeding events, avoid long queues at border crossings or refuse entry through certain countries.

Click to access Covid-19-and-cross-border-transport-of-live-animals.pdf

Good news!
The 🚚🚚 traffic jams on the border with Poland have resolved and the handling of 🐮🐷 animal transports is, according to our information, running relatively smoothly again. Nevertheless, the long transport routes mean agony for the animals.

This suffering must finally end!

Support our petition: ✍️ https://help.four-paws.org/de-DE/stoppt-grausame-lebendtiertransporte

https://www.facebook.com/4PFOTEN/

And I mean…A MEP`s initiative that is very commendable.
The letter is important for the following reason: The pressure on the unsuitable commission comes from the own circles. That is the only reason why it can work!

As with animal transports, the EU has offered nothing in this crisis. To put it very clearly, it is totally “out” and it is nowhere in demand.

But now internal pressure is being used, now the EU has to react to save its internal status, and maybe the good news of the normalization of animal transport to Poland is thanks to this letter.

At least the risk of infection that could arise inside the trucks and the generation of new bacteria is something that should force the EU to act.

My best regards to all, Venus

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We are providing the following as many of you (EU and non EU citizens) may wish to make your views known to the EU authorities in this consultation. There is really only one opportunity to say how you feel at the end of the consultation; so please do it, and consider what we say in the following.

Live animal transport is an issue that we have many years of campaigning experience with. It is our general opinion that the EU does not need to have yet another consultation on the issue of live transport. We consider that this (consultation) is solely to give the impression that EU citizens can have a say in the issue, and that their views will count regarding an end result.

Lets look quickly at a few points:

The EU Regulation 1/2005 on the ‘protection’ of animals during transport, was created as it says; to provide ‘protection’ to animals during transport. Hauliers and exporters have never complied with the regulation since the day it came into being. Have a look at a few investigations which we were involved with back in   – go to the following https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/ and then further scroll down until you see the heading:   ‘EU Papers, Official Investigations and the Rest’.

In summary – During 2010 – Mark worked with animal transport investigation teams within the EU, specifically concentrating on live calves being exported from Ireland (EU) to mainland EU. As a result of the investigations, Mark produced a 125 page official investigation report which was sent to both EU Parliamentarians and UK parliamentarians showing failures of Regulation 1/2005. You can read one investigation report; showing all the failures, when you go to the links and titles shown above.

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The system was failing the animals in transport way before 2010 and when the report was produced; it has failed them ever since, and it will continue to fail them as long as animals are transported; regardless of what the EU says and yet another ‘consultation’ which we are informed will make things better.

The EU has always failed animals in transport, and it always will. Consultations are simple ‘veils’ to make the common man think that something is being done and changes will result. In compliance with Reg 1/2005, all livestock transporter drivers are supposed to be certified so that they can give animals in their care the best of attention. The system of certifying drivers has never worked from its inception. Animals always suffer – that is the result.

We have slightly different views on another EU consultation within WAV. Some do not want to become involved at all, as they see the delay and tactics of the EU in this policy.   Yes agree 100%, it is another delaying tactic when all the clear evidence of abuses have been constantly provided to the EU for years. But with a consultation; which is underway now, regardless of our views; is there not an alternative way of viewing the consultation ? – send in your information as required and simply declare that EU policy has always failed the animals in transport; and it will continue to fail the animals in transport regardless of what is submitted. You could mention the 8 hours petition, which was undertaken in the past (2012); and further represented in Brussels to the EU on 16/9/2013 – here is the AA release on this: https://www.animals-angels.de/en/news/news-detail/16092013-belgium-brussels.html which will provide you with information:

Wording:

16.09.2013 | Belgium, Brussels

Animals’ Angels addressed the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament in the presence of MEPS and Commissioners in Brussels, to speak on the issue of animal welfare in transport.  Animals’ Angels addressed its petition of 1,103,248 signatures, delivered in June 2012, from European citizens calling for an end to long distance animal transport, and to impose a maximum 8 hour limit. 

We asked why the Commission had done nothing to properly address the democratic voices of European citizens and the European Parliament, which also supports the 8 hour transport limit. Animals’ Angels has asked the Petitions Committee to look into this, and to take any action considered just and appropriate to resolve the issue, and to get a proper response to the democratic voices calling for change.

So, 2012, 2013; well over 1 million EU citizens calling for an 8 hours (one off) maximum journey time; and here we are now in March 2020 having a consultation by the EU on the issue of live animal transport legislation !!

As we say, delaying tactics by the EU which just go on, and on, and on; and the animals suffer as a result for many more years.

Here below is the official wording of the new EU consultation which citizens are being invited to participate in. You did participate in the past, calling for 8 hours maximum journey time; so why now do we need more delay ?

As we say, the choice to get involved in this consultation is entirely down to individuals. I (Mark) see it as an opportunity to ask the EU formally why the 8 hour ruling of 2012/13 was never adopted by the Commission; despite the huge number of signatures in a petition at the time calling for an 8 hour max.

If you say nothing else in the consultation response; remind the EU that their regulation 1/2005 has always failed the animals in transport; that you signed the petition way back calling for an 8 hour maximum journey time; and the EU never listed or acted on this. So what is the point of a new consultation now, when we see the EU failing citizens who wish to make change for the better and for the animals.

Regards Mark.

Official EU consultation wording:

Target audience

• Competent authorities responsible for animal welfare;

• Business and professional organisations;

• EU citizens and consumers and organisation;

• Organisations from the civil society;

• Independent experts from academic and research institutes;

• European bodies, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA);

• International intergovernmental organisations active on animal welfare;

• Third countries;

• Other relevant bodies.

All targeted stakeholders are invited to give their feedback during the 12-week consultation period.

Animal Welfare: launch of the public consultation on the EU Strategy

The European Commission published a 12 weeks open consultation on the EU Strategy for Protection and Welfare of Animals 2012-2015. This public consultation, available into all EU languages, is part of a one-year external study supporting the evaluation of the EU Strategy. Launched in 2019, this evaluation aims to assess if the EU Strategy delivered its initial objectives and whether they are still relevant today. The results of the evaluation will inform future EU initiatives on animal welfare as well as actions under the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. Citizens, experts and stakeholders are invited to give their feedback before 15 June 2020.

Here is the link to the consultation:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/2140-Evaluation-of-the-EU-Animal-Welfare-Strategy-2012-2015-/public-consultation

and here is the link to the Commissions website: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare/strategy/evaluation_strategy_en

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Baby wombat and baby kangaroo are obsessed with each other…

Regards and a good night from Venus

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