Letters | Beyond deadly coronavirus: China is not the only country where wildlife is sold for food and buyers are not without blame

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Butchered dogs are displayed for sale at a stall inside a meat market in Yulin, Guangxi region, in June 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:05am, 6 Mar 2020Updated: 8:05am, 6 Mar 2020

It is excellent news that the Chinese government is attempting to enforce its laws against the illegal trade in wild animals as it battles the novel coronavirus, and Shenzhen is banning the eating of cats and dogs.

Steps also need to be taken worldwide to eliminate live food markets – no preference for freshly slaughtered “warm meat” should be allowed to put the rest of us in danger. Wet markets where live birds and other animals are treated no better than vegetables could be a perfect incubator for the next deadly virus.

To continue regarding all other creatures as nothing but food, indifferent to their suffering, is not only sickening behaviour but may end up making us all sick.

China is not the only country to have ignored animal welfare and turned a blind eye to wildlife consumption. Other Asian countries allow such dangerous practices and, despite the Ebola virus, bushmeat continues to be hunted and eaten in Africa.

That our very survival is in the hands of governments who may or may not decide to take the necessary action to protect us is a sobering thought. Will it one day be a case of too little, too late?

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Beyond deadly coronavirus: China is not the only country where wildlife is sold for food and buyers are not without blame

Letters | Beyond deadly coronavirus: China is not the only country where wildlife is sold for food and buyers are not without blame