Animal rights activists are calling on the World Health Organisation to ban all live-animal markets worldwide amid the coronavirus crisis.
Campaign group PETA claims to have filmed markets this month that are still cramming animals into cages to be sold in unsanitary conditions.
Spokesperson Carys Bennett today appeared on This Morning to urge authorities to do more to stop the markets operating.
Describing the footage undercover investigators filmed, she said: ‘You’ve got peacocks, deer, bats, dogs, snake, wolf pups, badgers, pigs, pangolins, foxes, it goes on.
‘There were around 100 different species there they are crammed into tiny cages, you can see they’re stacked on top of each other as well.’
The upsetting footage filmed in Thailand and Indonesia in early April showed that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘wet markets’ or live-animal markets, are still operating.
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Experts have said that it is widely believed the coronavirus crisis began at a market in Wuhan, China and traders globally have been warned by officials to stop selling dogs, cats, bats, rats, and other animals.
PETA claims its footage shows the warnings are being ignored, calling them ‘breeding grounds for viruses that cause zoonotic diseases, such as Covid-19 and SARS’.
Carys said: ‘You’ve got the mixture of both domesticated animals and wild animals all being brought in [to the market] – so many different species.
‘And we know that zoonotic diseases – diseases in humans that come from animals – are extrmely common, 75% of emerging infectious diseases now come from animals.’
PETA Asia has written to health officials in Indonesia, Thailand, and elsewhere in Asia to call for an end to deadly live-animal markets and is also asking the World Health Organization to call for the closure of all live-animal markets worldwide.
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