This shocking footage shows the wet markets still selling live bats, cats, and monkeys in China and throughout Asia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The disturbing footage was recorded by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at wet markets still operating in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
China has ordered the closure of live-animal markets after the spread of the coronavirus which started at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province.
However, PETA says the wet markets are opening again in China and across Asia, with the footage taken both in April and more recently.
In the footage, live eels can be seen being sold along with both dead and living frogs.
Shocking footage from Indonesia shows a live bat, which has been linked with COVID-19, being sold in a cage as well as civets, which have been linked with SARS.
Live rabbits and monkeys can be seen in cramped cages and one of the rabbits can be seen convulsing in front of the camera before it is seen dead.
Chickens and ducks can be seen cramped into packed cages while PETA said marketgoers were seen walking around in flip-flops on floors covered with assorted bodily fluids before “handling raw flesh and touching blood-streaked countertops without gloves.”
The video also shows live frogs in a cage whilst traders are seen butchering meat with no gloves on.
One photo show cats allegedly being sold at Indonesia’s Tomohon Market in a crowded cage with no food or water until PETA says “they were purchased for their flesh.”
A press statement said that in Vietnam, the cooked heads and other body parts of dogs were found piled on a counter near living animals.
The group said live turtles and other “exotic” sea animals were also available for purchase at the markets which they said are “potential breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19, SARS, and MERS.”
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said: “The next deadly pandemic is inevitable as long as markets filled with sick and stressed animals are still open. PETA is calling on government officials to shut down these Petri dishes for pandemics.”
The organisation called for the health ministers of the countries involved to close the live-animal markets but said they had not received a response.
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Story By: Alex Cope, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: AsiaWire Report
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