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The Danger and Cruelty of Wet Markets

TOGETHER, WE REACHED THE UNITED NATIONS

In 2020 we launched an international campaign to demand a ban on the sale and slaughter of live animals at wet markets around the world. Our petition addressed to the United Nations (UN) has collected more than 500,000 worldwide signatures.

On June 17th 2021, the signatures were delivered to the UN asking the governing body to publicly acknowledge the risks live animal sales pose to global health and urging policymakers all over the world to restrict wet markets from selling live animals. 

This international action marks a great milestone in the fight for animals that would not have been possible without you.

To the Attention of UN Secretary-General António Guterres,

In markets across the world, exotic and traditionally farmed animals are traded and brutally slaughtered for customers who desire to eat freshly killed meat. These outdoor shops, called wet markets, get their name in part from the blood that soaks the stalls’ floors after live animals are killed once purchased.

Animals at wet markets are mixed together in cramped cages and unsanitary enclosures, creating the perfect breeding ground for zoonotic diseases. It is in these unregulated markets where diseases like SARS originated, and where scientists believe COVID-19 began.

Because of the public health crises these markets can cause, as well as the intense suffering inflicted on animals, these wet markets need to be banned.

We, the undersigned, call upon Your Excellencies to demand that these wet markets be immediately banned wherever they are operated, saving animals from a hell on earth and protecting the public from threats to their health and safety.

Petitioning:
H.E. UN Secretary-General António Guterres
H.E. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed
H.E. UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkır
H.E. UN Economic and Social Council President Munir Akram
H.E. UN Security Council President H.E. Jerry Matthews Matjila
Cc: Ambassadors to Member States with Animal Equality Offices

H.E. Mrs. Kelly Craft, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN
H.E. Mr. Jonathan Guy Allen, Chargé d’Affaires to the UK Mission to the UN
H.E. Mr. Agustín Santos Maraver, Permanent Representative of Spain to the UN
H.E. Mr. Christoph Heusgen, Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN
H.E. Mr. Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN
H.E. Mrs. Maria Angela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN
H.E. Mr. Ronaldo Costa Filho, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN
H.E. Mr. Tirunelvelli Srinivasamurti Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the UN

Thanks {firstname} for defending farmed animals!

Live animal markets are not only a threat to our health and safety but they’re also places where animals suffer immensely and are killed without mercy.

Please help us spread the word. Share this video and the petition with your friends and family.

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{firstname}, your actions are changing the world for animals everywhere. I thank you again for your support and we’ll keep you informed of this investigation’s progress.

For the animals,
Sharon Núñez

President
Animal Equality

P.S. You can help our brave investigators by giving today and supporting this campaign

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NOTHING HAD CHANGED WHEN WE RETURNED

In collaboration with local activists, we returned to the places where it’s believed COVID-19 began: China’s live animal markets.

Our team determined that it was important to monitor the situation within the country’s wet markets to find out if anything had really changed, as many media outlets repeatedly announced. We had an obligation to the more than half a million people who had already signed our petition to end these markets — places where humans come into contact with wild and farmed animals, creating breeding grounds for emerging zoonotic diseases. We had to return to these live animal markets to report the truth and we did so with the help of local activists.

This is not the first time our investigators have infiltrated these markets where living and dead, wild and domestic animals are sold for consumption. Between 2014 and 2019, we captured shocking images of animal cruelty in wet markets in China, Vietnam, and India.

The footage we were able to capture when we returned to China reveals that the threat to public health and safety continues. Despite the pandemic that has changed our lives as we know it, these sites (where COVID-19 is believed to have originated) are still open to the public and continue to trade and kill a wide range of animal species.

THE SUFFERING OF ANIMALS CONTINUES

From the moment investigators arrived at the markets, we could see live and dead animals transported in vehicles that exposed them to dirt, smog, and contamination.
Due to the terrible conditions in which the animals are handled and transported, like these 12 ducks crammed into a single sack, chronic stress causes their immune systems to deteriorate. This makes them more susceptible to viruses, such as the one that caused the current pandemic.
Turtles, chickens, frogs, ducks, geese, pigeons, fish and more are traded and killed, bringing together species that would never live together in the wild. This can increase the risk of disease transmission.
The animals are killed while fully conscious and their blood soaks the stalls. Sanitary conditions are often poor and animal welfare and health safety controls, despite the danger, are still non-existent.

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WET MARKETS, APRIL 2020

An Immediate Threat to Public Health

Animal Equality has launched a worldwide campaign and petition calling for the immediate closure of wet markets across the globe. Wet markets get their name in part from the blood, guts, scales and water that soak the stalls’ floors, remnants of animals brutally killed so customers can eat freshly killed meat.

In exclusive footage shot by Animal Equality at wet markets in China, Vietnam and India, animals such as deer, raccoons, crocodiles, and dogs are shown living in filthy conditions, suffering from dehydration, starvation and disease.

These markets are also a threat to public health and have been the source of documented disease outbreaks in the past, including SARS. Researchers also believe COVID-19 most likely originated from a wet market notorious for trading in wild animals in Wuhan, China.

It is because of the public health crises wet markets cause, as well as the intense suffering inflicted on farmed animals, that Animal Equality is urging the United Nations to demand a ban on all wet markets. Not only do these markets pose an immediate danger to humans, they are also intensely cruel to animals.

3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals

REPORT ON ZOONOTIC DISEASES
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Hell on Earth for Animals

In markets across the world, live animals are traded and brutally slaughtered for customers who want to eat fresh meat.
These outdoor shops, called wet markets, get their name in part from the blood that soaks the stalls’ floors after live animals are killed once purchased.
Wild and farmed animals are mixed together in cramped cages and unsanitary enclosures, creating the perfect breeding ground for zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.
It is because of the public health crises these markets cause, as well as the intense suffering inflicted on farmed animals, that these wet markets need to be banned.

Wet Markets Expert Quotes

If you take wild animals and you put them into a market with domestic animals or other animals, where there’s an opportunity for a virus to jump species, you are creating … a superhighway for viruses to go from the wild into people. We can’t do this anymore. We can’t tolerate this anymore. I want the wild animal markets closed.

DR. IAN LIPKIN

The animals have been transported over large distances and are crammed together into cages. They are stressed and immunosuppressed and excreting whatever pathogens they have in them. With people in large numbers in the market and in intimate contact with the body fluids of these animals, you have an ideal mixing bowl for [disease] emergence.

PROF. ANDREW CUNNINGHAM

Ending
Animal Cruelty Worldwide

**Animal Equality is an international organisation working with society, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals. Our investigations are the most important work we do and have helped millions of animals.**

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