A joint letter by the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan and foreign groups is calling on the WHO and other global bodies to close wildlife markets to reduce human and animal health risks, citing the COVID-19 outbreak in China as an example.
The letter, signed by 208 organizations and individuals around the world, was sent on Tuesday to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Organisation for Animal Health director-general Monique Eloit and UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen.
The call was initiated by the UK-based Born Free Foundation, Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan office director Lin Tai-ching (林岱瑾) said yesterday, adding that the animal society also started a petition to gather domestic support for the initiative.
Photo: Reuters
“The current coronavirus epidemic sweeping across parts of China is believed to have originated in wildlife, and might have been transmitted to people via wildlife markets in the city of Wuhan, although the precise source of the human infection has yet to be definitively established,” the letter read.
Wildlife markets have also been associated with other epidemics, such as the global outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and 2003, and Ebola epidemics in Africa in recent years, it said.
While China has announced a temporary ban on wildlife trade and wildlife markets across the country, the measures should be made permanent, it added.
The EU has banned the import of captive live birds to reduce the transmission of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, the letter said, citing the example as a precedent.
Stopping wildlife trade also safeguards biodiversity, as 1 million animal and plant species are on the verge of extinction, the letter said.
Direct exploitation has been identified as the second-most important driver of biodiversity loss, following changes in land use and sea use, it said, citing a report published last year by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
Wildlife sales in Taiwan have declined significantly since a 1994 amendment to the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) banned the trade of protected wildlife, but some eateries still sell wildlife, such as the Formosan Reeves’ muntjac and civets, Lin said.
Although Reeves’ muntjacs and civets have been removed from the government’s list of protected species, consuming wild animals is unnecessary, as people can eat poultry and other farm animals, she said.
While not every person can switch to veganism, society has been promoting farming and slaughter methods that reduce the pain caused to animals, such as cage-free eggs, she said.
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