Right now in New York City — the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — over 80 dangerous live animal markets remain operational, spilling blood, guts, feces and other potentially infectious bodily fluids in close proximity to hundreds of people.
There is new hope in stopping the horror: A bill proposed in the NY State Assembly could finally ban these horrifying live animal markets. Sign now to help this crucial legislation pass.
SIGN: Immediately Shut Down All Live Animal ‘Wet’ Markets in New York
PETITION TARGETS:NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, NY Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, NY Assembly Majority Leader Carl Heastie
UPDATE: New York officially introduced Bill A10399, “an act to to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to prohibiting the operation of establishments where animals and/or fowls are slaughtered and butchered for food.” Sign to urge leaders to pass this important legislation and immediately shut down all live animal markets in the state.
New York state should lead the world by example. How? By immediately closing down and permanently banning all cruel and dangerous live animal “wet” markets.
New York is the epicenter for the global COVID-19 pandemic, and just like the wet markets in China that gave birth to the crisis, more than 80 dangerous live animal markets are operating today in New York City alone, despite the New York State of Pause Executive Order.
Soaked wet with blood, guts, feces, and other bodily fluids and parts, these markets are ideal environments for the incubation and spreading of zoonotic diseases, as a mix of animals are jam-packed into tight cages awaiting slaughter.
NYC is particularly susceptible to a new, even more uncontainable virus spreading through its population of over 8 million people, as all residents live in relatively close quarters. As live animal wet markets remain open, public health and safety are at risk. In addition to the current uncontained COVID virus, new variants of COVID could emerge, reinfecting humans and causing a global viral pandemic relapse. Such introductions could be more deadly, and plague even more people globally.
The facts are clear: live animal markets — whether in Wuhan, China or on the streets of New York — are breeding grounds for deadly zoonotic diseases that then become communicable human-to-human viruses. The government must immediately shut them all down in the interest of public health and safety.
Sign this petition urging lawmakers to do everything in their power to shut down all live animal markets in the state of New York.
The public health threat isn’t a foreign enemy. It’s here, too.
On April 3, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, joined the chorus of voices calling for the immediate closure of China’s “wet markets,” where the coronavirus is widely believed to have originated. Butchers, trappers and consumers mingle openly, slaughtering and trading live animals; it is the perfect environment for zoonotic diseases to leap from an infected creature to a human.
But China is hardly the only country where live animal markets and other squalid operations are common. Some 80 of them operate within the five boroughs of New York City alone, according to Slaughter Free NYC, a nonprofit group that opposes them. They are near residences, schools and public parks.
Less notorious but much more commonplace threats to public health are the “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs) scattered throughout the South and Midwest. These factory farms warehouse thousands of animals that wallow in their own waste with limited or no airspace, routinely creating conditions for the proliferation of super bugs and zoonotic pathogens. Nearly the entire supply of animal products consumed in the United States originate from these industrial factory farms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have warned us against the risks of factory farms for years. The unsanitary living conditions inside CAFOs weaken animals’ immune systems and increase their susceptibility to infection and disease. The factory farms’ response has been to pump the animals full of antibiotics that make their way into our food supply and onto our dinner plates, systematically fostering in humans a lethal resistance to the medicines that once quelled everyday infections. Such practices have brought humanity to the point that the WHO now estimates that more than half of all human diseases emanate from animals.
Many of us are privileged enough to stay at home in safety with our loved ones to avoid the coronavirus. But how much thought are we giving to the individuals and communities that are directly affected by our choices and lifestyles? Tens of thousands of Americans face threats to their daily health and well-being from neighboring CAFOs and the animal waste that mists or flows over their properties. They are unable to be “safer at home.” Will we apply the same energy we have put into overcoming this virus into preventing future outbreaks and helping dismantle the industries inflicting so much damage to communities across the country?
As this disaster continues to ravage society, we must examine our role in the emergence of the coronavirus and our vulnerability to a growing number of diseases as a result of our impositions on the animal kingdom and the environment. This probe cannot end with bats, monkeys, pangolins and other exotic wildlife supposedly to blame for recent contagions. It should encompass all of the supporting industries that contribute to the debilitation of communities, our susceptibility to illnesses and our complete defenselessness in their wake. A real public-health reckoning would have us reshape our patterns of consumption, curbing our dependence on animal products. A bacteria-infested (and inhumane) food supply makes people sick.
Covid-19 is a devastating indicator of what’s to come if we don’t make rapid and sweeping changes, the least inconvenient of which is closing down all live-animal markets and CAFOs in the midst of this global pandemic.
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Fury as swan shot in head four times while protecting nest in ‘cruel and horrible’ attack
A SWAN was shot in the head four times while trying to protect her nest in a shocking case of animal cruelty at a park in Merseyside.
The RSPCA was called to reports of an injured swan at Stadt Moers Park on Tuesday. The bird was rushed to the vets but had to be put down after four pellets were found in her head.
RSPCA inspector Louise Showering, who attended the incident with animal welfare officer Matt Brown, said the attack was “cruel and horrible”.
Insp Showering said: “When Matt and I arrived we could see two swans sitting on a nest containing eggs on the banks of the park’s lake.
“We were really concerned because we could see blood on one of the swans, so Matt changed into his specialist water rescue kit and made his way into the lake.
“He was able to get hold of the female easily, so we knew she was badly hurt.
“As we carried the swan away from the lake we could hear her mate calling for her, it was very upsetting, especially as he will now have to protect the eggs, but it is possible he may be successful in raising the young alone.
“To think someone has done this deliberately is absolutely terrible, I can’t imagine why someone would be so cruel to a wild animal.
“The local people who have watched the birds for some time are also extremely upset.”
The RSPCA is appealing for anyone with information to contact them.
Insp Showering added: “It’s an offence to kill or injure a wild bird, not to mention a really cruel and horrible thing to do.
“We’re appealing to anyone who may have any information, no matter how small, to get in touch.
“They can leave a message for me in complete confidence by calling our inspector appeal line number on 0300 123 8018.”
Twitter users reacted with fury to the attack on the swan.
Today AWO Brown was called to rescue a Swan from a pool in #Huyton, that had been shot 4 times & left to die, whilst trying to protect its nest. The Swan was rushed to the vets, but its injuries were too severe & so euthanasia was the kindest option. #stillhereforanimals 33 pic.twitter.com/k3GLlNDuIy
David Attenborough’s chilling warning on humanity’s relationship with animals exposed
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’s chilling warning about humanity’s dangerous relationship with animals was exposed – as an unearthed study revealed the damage that has gone on since the dawn of mankind.
Asian giant hornets (known as ‘murder hornets’) have shown up in the US for the first time, giving Americans a “refreshing” change of pace and something else to worry about other than the deadly Covid-19 pandemic
In any other year, reports of murder hornets being in the US for the first time ever might instill some fear in people, but with the news dropping in the midst of a pandemic that has crippled the economy and left people under strict lockdown orders, it appears to have been greeted mostly with humor.
— Peter Griffin Burner (@PeterGriffinAcc) May 2, 2020
The worry now is these hornets could spread in the US and have a serious effect on the bee population, which in turn negatively impacts the many crops that need bees for pollination.
The WSDA has started an “aggressive trapping program” to stop the spread of the hornets and, hopefully, another potential crisis.
How have people responded to the news? Battleworn from Covid-19, the potential for a crisis with ‘murder hornets’ has been taken surprisingly well.
And I mean…They say it’s definitely a spying horn-like drone !!!
Has China been sanctioned?
Or Russia?
Monsanto and Bayer have been contaminating the bee world with only A FEW MILLION TONS of glyphosate for years, which is not only harm but also a crime.
And this crime goes on.
Since the United States is the main user of Monsanto and pollutes its environment with pesticides, not only bees but millions of other insect species have died, which will lead to the inevitable hunger of the “murder” hornets.
The WSDA’s aggressive trapping program is therefore unnecessary!
We have always thought that insects are the animals that survive best.
We thought wrong.
We did the calculation without to considere the professional environmental criminals Monsanto, Bayer and other giants.
WAV Comment – What sort of idiots have we got in charge of organisations such as the WHO ? – so you (WHO) are going to ensure that everyone conforms to stringent food and hygiene standards are you ?
We could say that your failures to act on these issues are what allowed wet markets to operate just as they have done in the past; ie unmonitored; is now the reason why the whole planet is in crisis.
We say a bit of a ‘shutting the stable door with useless words after the horse has bolted’ type thing.
WHO – fools governing foolish governments all over the world. Now the world suffers and the words of enforcement and necessary actions are a little late. You should have done your job of enforcement years ago.
The WHO says:
More recently, the head of the World Health Organization said all governments must “rigorously enforce bans on the sale and trade of wildlife for food”.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “When these markets are allowed to reopen, it should only be on the condition that they conform to stringent food safety and hygiene standards.”
Coronavirus: Australia urges G20 action on wildlife wet markets
The Australian government is calling for the G20 countries to take action on wildlife wet markets, calling them a “biosecurity and human health risk”.
Australia is not yet calling for a ban – but says its own advisers believe they may need to be “phased out”.
“Wet markets” are marketplaces that sell fresh food such as meat and fish.
But some also sell wildlife – and it’s thought the coronavirus may have emerged at a wet market in Wuhan that sold live, “exotic” animals.
The Huanan market in Wuhan reportedly offered a range of animals including foxes, wolf cubs, civets, turtles, and snakes.
What did Australia say?
The Australian government called for an investigation into wildlife wet markets after a meeting of G20 agriculture ministers.
“A wet market, like the Sydney fish market, is perfectly safe,” he said.
“But when you add wildlife, live wildlife, exotic wildlife – that opens up human risk and biosecurity risk to the extent we have seen.
“And in fact, China themselves reported this to the World Organisation for Animal Health, that that was the cause of Covid-19.”
Mr Littleproud said he wanted to “get the science” first, but said: “Even our chief veterinary officer is telling us that he believes they [wildlife wet markets] may need to be phased out.”
What is the risk of wildlife wet markets?
The exact origin of the new coronavirus is not known, but the evidence suggests it came from an animal.
More recently, the head of the World Health Organization said all governments must “rigorously enforce bans on the sale and trade of wildlife for food”.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “When these markets are allowed to reopen, it should only be on the condition that they conform to stringent food safety and hygiene standards.”
File photo of skulls of White Rhinos and the snares that have entrapped them stand as a stark reminder of the ongoing battle in South Africa to protect these majestic, gentle giants of the African bush.
Ilan Godfrey | Getty Images
‘Filthy bloody business:’ Poachers kill more animals as coronavirus crushes tourism to Africa
Key Points
As the coronavirus pandemic halts tourism to Africa, poachers are encroaching on land and killing rhinos in travel hot spots now devoid of visitors and safari guides.
In Botswana, at least six rhinos have been poached since the virus shut down tourism there. In the northwest South Africa, at least nine rhinos have been killed since the virus lockdown.
“It’s a bloody calamity. It’s an absolute crisis,” said Map Ives, founder of Rhino Conservation Botswana, a nonprofit organization.
Ryan Tate is supposed to be in South Africa right now helping to fight off poachers who hack horns off rhinos and kill elephants for their ivory tusks.
But since the country announced a national lockdown in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Tate is stuck in the U.S. He can’t join his team out in South Africa’s wilderness and can’t meet with private donors in the U.S. for his anti-poaching nonprofit organization, which is seeing donations dry up.
“It’s a helpless feeling,” said Tate, a 35-year former Marine and the founder of VetPaw, a group of American military veterans who fight poachers in a remote private reserve in the far north of South Africa.
“Poaching doesn’t stop just because there’s a virus — if anything, it picks up,” he said.
Although poaching is not uncommon in Africa, poachers during the coronavirus pandemic have encroached on land they wouldn’t normally visit and killed rhinos in tourism hot spots now devoid of visitors and safari guides.
In Botswana, at least six rhinos have been poached since the virus shut down tourism. Botswana’s security forces in April shot and killed five suspected poachers in two incidents. In northwest South Africa, at least nine rhinos have been killed since the virus lockdown. All the poaching took place in what were previously tourism areas that were safe for animals to roam.
“It’s a bloody calamity. It’s an absolute crisis,” Map Ives, founder of Rhino Conservation Botswana, a nonprofit organization, said of poaching across the continent.
There are still rangers in the African reserves, but the loss of tourist vehicles in parks provide poachers a significant advantage.
“The poachers have been emboldened because the playing field is in their favor and they won’t have as many problems moving around,” said Ives, who has lived on the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana for four decades but is stranded in South Carolina due to travel restrictions.
Highly organized illegal poaching threatens to send black and white rhinos, elephants and other African wildlife into extinction over the next several decades. The black rhino population has plummeted 97.6% since 1960 and the lion population is down 43% in the last 21 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund. At least 35,000 African elephants are killed each year and roughly only 1,000 mountain gorillas and 2,000 Grevy’s zebras remain on the continent.
“They are professional and adept at running off with rhino horns in minutes and dodging security forces. They are masters at evading detection,” he said. “It’s a filthy bloody business.”
Since Botswana’s booming tourism industry collapsed because of the virus lockdown, Ives has seen an anecdotal rise in rhino and bush meat poaching incidents. His company is running short of cash as donations dry up amid the global lockdown, and that may result in reduced patrols as a result.
“We lost hundreds of sets of eyes and ears in the delta,” Ives said. “I’m sure poachers know this — they watch these camps closely and see tourism activity.”
Africa’s $39.2 billion tourism industry is also vital in funding wildlife conservation efforts across the continent.
Africa received 62.5 million visitors, creating 9.1 million direct jobs in travel and tourism sectors in 2015, according to estimates from the African Development Bank.
Funding from sources like national park fees and safari rides are vital to wildlife conservation in Africa.
But now people working in tourism are being laid off because of the pandemic and national parks that provide wildlife a safe place from poachers are losing revenue. All three national parks in Rwanda have temporarily closed, along with Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kruger National Park in South Africa.
“There’s a lot of people struggling in Africa, a lot of private reserves that have helped save a few species including rhinos,” said Tate. “Now they don’t have that ecotourism they depend on, it’s gone. There’s going to be a lot of damage done from this.”
There’s also a major concern that as the coronavirus harms African economies and sharply raises unemployment levels, people will become desperate for income streams and pursue poaching to make a living.
Africa reported a 43% jump in coronavirus cases over the last week, according to Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization has warned that the continent of 1.3 billion people could become the next epicenter of the outbreak, potentially pushing 30 million people into poverty.
Conservationists expect that in addition to professional poachers killing more animals, countries across Africa will experience a massive surge in bush meat poaching by average people since it’s cheaper to kill animals for meat than to buy it.
“Why do criminals commit acts of crime? They do it because they’re desperate and it’s a quick easy means for money,” Ryan said. “Poaching is no different. There’s a lot of desperate people out there because of the virus and [poaching] will absolutely pick up.”
A factory farm near Wieckowice in Poland, owned by US pork giant Smithfield Foods, the biggest pig factory farming corporation in the world, has been infected with African Swine Fever. The Guardian reported on 8th April 2020 that over 10,000 piglets on the farm would be culled.
I went to Wieckowice to film my (2009) Channel 4 documentary Pig Business where I met local residents and workers suffering from respiratory, neural and intestinal diseases because of toxic emissions from this very same pig factory that has closed today. I climbed factory farm perimeter fences to film suffering pigs and interviewed Smithfield Foods’ US lawyer and local directors, EU bankers and EU bureaucrats to hear their excuses for their destruction of rural culture, health and economies.
Meanwhile on 16 April 2020, 700+ workers at a Smithfield Foods processing plant in South Dakota, were tested positive for COVID-19, representing 55% of all confirmed cases in the state.
In this uncensored version of the 2009 film Pig Business you will hear pork processing workers describing their cramped, dangerous and unsanitary conditions in Smithfield’s slaughter and packing plant at Tar Heel, North Carolina. Though most of the meat is now sent to China and the workers have union representation, most of the workers are undocumented migrants whose rights are undermined. So it is not surprising that during this pandemic Tar Heel is still open and slaughtering 34,000 pigs per day.
In 2009, the censored version of Pig Business was broadcast by Channel 4. We have now posted the uncensored film that includes footage of local doctors, workers and of Robert F Kennedy Jr that had to be taken out of the Channel 4 broadcast version because of threats of defamation from Smithfield Foods.
The competitive imperative for livestock farms to ‘get big or get out of the industry’ is threatening the health of people, animals and ecosystems around the world. What hope of curbing the possible vector of viruses in the UK if pig and poultry factory farms continue to grow ever bigger?
The launch of the Pig Business, The Full Tail – an uncensored version of Pig Business (2009) comes as US pork giant Smithfield Foods – featured in the documentary – slaughters 10,000 pigs stricken with African Swine Fever in a factory farm in Poland, and closes its packing facility in South Dakota where 700+ workers tested positive for COVID-19. Where Smithfield Foods sowed bad karma of cruel treatment of pigs and sick workers and neighbours, so they now reap the consequences.
When I first heard about the outbreak of COVID-19, one emotion I didn’t feel was surprise.
No measures were taken to prevent the root cause of swine flu, mad cow disease and avian flu, and so it was only a matter of time before some new and deadly disease spread from animals to humans. This time it is COVID-19. Many scientists are again suggesting that the pig and poultry industries could be the vectors of the disease in its passage from bats to humans. So, instead of our governments only investing in cures and vaccines, we urgently need to prevent the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases by ending factory farming.
My film Pig Business, exposes the true costs of the corporate takeover of the pig industry focusing on US pig giant Smithfield Foods’ invasion of Poland. It was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2009, during the global pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) that killed approximately 253,000 people worldwide, though some sources report much higher.
Smithfield Foods’ takeover of pig farming and processing in Poland has come home to haunt it. They were in the headlines earlier this month when African Swine Fever struck their factory pig farm in Wieckowice, Poland, 93 miles from the German border, and all 10,000 piglets had to be slaughtered.
A week later, Smithfield was in the news again when their packing plant in S. Dakota was closed due to a staggering 700+ confirmed COVID-19 cases among Smithfield employees and people associated with them. Smithfield-related infections account for 55% of the caseload in the state.
My film tells the story of neighbours living near the US-based (and now Chinese owned), Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork producer, that had expanded into Poland in the late 1990’s thanks to a favourable loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Pigs are raised in unhealthy, stressful conditions that cause such suffering to the animals that they have to be given prophylactic antibiotics to keep them alive. The sheds become a breeding ground for antibiotic resistant diseases that form part of the toxic brew, including ammonia, hydrogen sulphide from biodegrading faeces, that threatens the health of both workers and neighbours with respiratory, neural and intestinal diseases.
To compete with this global race to the bottom, EU and UK pig farms are still expanding and externalising their true costs, or facing bankruptcy.
When the BBC World rejected the film, Pig Business for fear of litigation, Channel 4 agreed to air it. But when Smithfield got wind of it in 2008, they instructed a London lawyer to threaten Channel 4 with a libel action if they dared go ahead with the broadcast. Channel 4 hired a specialist libel lawyer to alter the film to ensure it was protected from the very corporate-friendly libel laws that prevailed in the UK at the time. In 2013 the law was changed so that now a profit-making entity must prove serious financial loss before it can sue for damages.
Though Channel 4 did broadcast the film, Smithfield’s threats to sue them resulted in scores of important testimonials being removed.
I am now publishing the Pig Business ‘The Full Tail – uncensored version’ film that contains those powerful extracts as they are as relevant today as they were back in 2009. The arrival of African Swine Fever in their farm in Poland and the rates of COVID-19 in their processing house proves that their dangerous businesses practices have not changed despite the suffering and diseases that locals have complained about for decades.
Below are some of the statements that have returned into the Director’s cut.
Polish Minister for Agriculture; ‘Often they try to keep the inspectors out of the farms altogether. The owners use various legal loopholes and tricks……to stop vets entering the farms’
Why was this removed? In a libel court in the UK we would have to prove that this happened repeatedly and on specific farms on specific dates’
Smithfield former farm worker; ‘The doctor asked where I worked before… and I said on the pig farm… He said I simply breathed all those fumes and my lungs couldn’t cope. He said my lungs had shrunk day by day. I’ve damaged my lungs and there was no cure.’
‘When there was an inspection, we were told to remove all the treatment charts and when they’d gone we hung them up again. If the inspectors should ask us questions we were instructed to say we were only cleaners…and that the vet was doing all the treatment not us.’
Why was this removed? No workers were allowed to be used in the film
Smithfield former farm worker ‘Most people are sick but hide it for fear of losing their jobs. They come from local villages. The problem is the microclimate… which contains concentrated… hydrogen, sulphate, nitrogen… and other poisonous substances.’
‘…because of the large amount of pigs, we found many sick pigs during our routine rounds, so we would give medicines all the time”
Why was this removed? No workers were allowed to be in the film. Smithfield might argue that we cannot prove specific cases with medical records, although 25%-30% of factory pig farm workers suffer permanent lung damage.
Neighbour of the Wiekowice pig factory; ‘The gasses from the farm have been tested. A certified company called Atma conducted the research. This was paid for by the county mayor. The results showed the pollution was up to 30 times above the recommended guidelines’.
Why was this removed? They had to be able to prove that these gasses are emitted every day.
Each day’s test cost £1,100 so the local mayor could only afford one test
Robert F Kennedy Jr: ‘They can’t raise hogs with this kind of cruelty unless they give them lots of antibiotics, sub-therapeutic antibiotics. The United States dept of agriculture just made a study that said that every one of these facilities puts out 1 billion antibiotic-resistant bacteria every day that crosses the property line and threatens the health of people who live down-wind of those facilities and the herds of animals that live down-wind of those facilities’.
‘They can’t produce a pork chop cheaper than a family farmer without breaking the law.’
Why was this removed? Can’t use Robert Kennedy unless he is speaking in the senate
With global trade, pig farming has to compete with global ‘vertically integrated’ giants like Smithfield Foods that own both pig production and processing to reap the profit from the entire system. Their monopoly enables them to push down the prices of pork and so bankrupt independent pig producers and their contract farmers and externalise their true polluting costs onto the broader community. Local diseases are now proving to be global. The power is in our hands. We can prevent these diseases by only buying meat from local small scale family farms where animals are treated as sentient beings not industrial raw materials.
The good karma of only eating meat with a high welfare label will reap the reward of less animal-to -human diseases. The health of our animals is integral to our own survival. Look for the high welfare labels RSPCA Assured, Free Range or best of all, Organic or go direct to your farmer via farmers market, websites like Big Barn or your local box delivery scheme to find high welfare. Please sign and share our petition asking the government not to sign a trade deal with the US that allows imports of pork raised in conditions that are illegal in the UK.
World Animals Voice 