Animal trade in spotlight as China seeks source of coronavirus
Authorities believe new strain of coronavirus came from a market in Wuhan where wildlife was sold illegally.
Officials in China are searching to uncover the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, amid heightened scrutiny of the country’s poorly regulated animal trade.
Authorities believe the new strain of coronavirus came from a seafood market in Wuhan where wildlife was sold illegally. The World Health Organization has stated that an animal appears most likely to be the primary source, with experts suggesting it may have been carried by bats, badgers, rats or snakes.
The virus is from the same family of viruses as Sars, which was passed to humans from bats by the masked pam civets, and Mers, which was carried from bats to humans by camels.
Ian Jones, professor of virology at Reading University, said it was likely that the Wuhan virus had also been transmitted in the same way – passed from bats to humans through an intermediate host. “Something in the local area will have picked up this virus and it’s this something that would have been on sale in the wet market,” said Jones.
Though the 2002-03 Sars outbreak, which killed nearly 800 people, prompted efforts to regulate the wildlife trade in China, the tradition of eating endangered wild animals, or using wildlife to produce medicines, remains popular. Conservationists and health experts warn that such animals are being sold in unhygienic and cramped markets, allowing viruses to thrive.
Media reports suggest that about 50 wild animals, including endangered pangolins, were on sale at the market in Wuhan before it was closed at the end of last year. Photographs taken before its closure show snakes, porcupines and foxes crammed into cages. The sister of a vendor infected by the virus told China Business Journal, a state-owned paper, that snakes, ducks and wild rabbits were common at the market.
“The animal welfare part of this is obvious, but much more hidden is this stashing and mixing of all these species together in a very small area, with secretions and urine mixed up together,” Christian Walzer, executive director of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told Reuters.
The environment creates a perfect system to spread viruses, he said: “You couldn’t do it any better if you tried.”
Research published on Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Virology, which used analysis of the protein codes favoured by the new coronavirus, suggested it may have been snakes at the market that passed the virus to humans.
Some argue that the virus is more likely to have been passed on by a mammal. “In my view it’s very unlikely to be a snake because the jump from a reptile to a person is evolutionarily quite a long way,” said Jones, who added that while snake handling is common in the region, he is not aware of any individuals contracting this kind of virus after direct handling of snakes.
Identifying the origin of the virus would not only enable officials to prevent its circulation, but could also allow scientists to understand if the virus has further evolved after infecting people.
On Wednesday, China’s national health commission vice-minister Li Bin told reporters there was evidence of respiratory transmission of the virus from patient to patient. Among those infected are 15 medical staff.
Now we move to Vietnam; animal welfare aside for a second, just look at the state of the container in which the live frogs are being kept; shit black dirt all up the sides; workers taking not one glimmer of any hygiene controls – clothing; gloves, anything. It all looks like a super recipe for Coronavirus Mk2 from where we stand – see the images from the Chinese markets in our links above – notice the commonality ?. Are the Asians attempting to kill off the entire planet or what ? – no; only killing off innocent animals which are being abused for their selfish food fetish needs.
“We also saw the mangled bodies of dead or dying frogs scattered across the market floor – frogs who managed to jump out of these tubs while being sorted ended up squashed under the feet of passers-by or under the wheels of motorbikes speeding down the hectic market corridors. It was shocking.”
‘France is the biggest consumer, eating 4,000 tons a year, but America has been catching up, and they are also popular in Asian cuisine’.
‘Research shows that the mass movement of frogs for human consumption – often unregulated or mislabelled – also plays a role in ecosystem collapse and spreading disease’.
Watch the disgusting video by clicking on either of the following:
Live frogs are being crammed together in tubs and sold in food markets in east Asia, destined for painful deaths, an investigation has found.
Thousands of the amphibians were filmed being poured into large buckets at street markets in Vietnam, where workers frantically rifle through them, then stuff them into bags for sale.
Animal-welfare experts say the trade is not just “agonising” but also increases the risk of the extinction of the species, as creatures are taken from the wild.
Studies show the practice also damages natural food chains. And scientists say piling up live frogs in such conditions risks spreading disease among the amphibians.
In a joint investigation by the Moving Animals group and The Independent, bins full of living frogs were found in the seafood section of Binh Dien market.
“They are taken from stacked delivery crates and poured into buckets, where workers frantically grab them by hand to sort them,” said one investigator. “The sorted frogs are then stuffed into a bag, ready for sale – all while still alive.
“We also saw the mangled bodies of dead or dying frogs scattered across the market floor – frogs who managed to jump out of these tubs while being sorted ended up squashed under the feet of passers-by or under the wheels of motorbikes speeding down the hectic market corridors. It was shocking.”
It is estimated more than three billion frogs are eaten worldwide each year, which are mostly caught from in the wild in Indonesia, but they are also farmed. France is the biggest consumer, eating 4,000 tons a year, but America has been catching up, and they are also popular in Asian cuisine.
Fears of falling populations have long been raised, leading France to ban farming and capturing frogs in the country in 1979.
However, the EU still imports the legs of tens of thousands of the amphibians from Asia each year, to the dismay of conservationists.
Activists claim frogs are often “forgotten” in welfare laws. They are “often skinned, and have their snouts and rear legs cut off with scissors or a blade while still alive. Their torsos are then tossed aside in a pile of other bleeding frogs and they endure a slow, agonising death,” according to the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute.
A 2011 report, Canapés to Extinction, by international animal groups, said scientists had found frogs’ pain perception was similar to mammals’ and when their legs were cut off they struggled “until they reach complete exhaustion”.
Other witnesses have reported that in many cases only the hind legs are used for food, with the body thrown away.
Worldwide, amphibians are already suffering “catastrophic population declines” from interacting pathogens, scientists say. Fungal disease chytridiomycosis is thought to have caused the extinction of 90 species and marked declines of at least 491 others. Globalisation and the wildlife trade have been given most of the blame for the pandemic.
Research shows that the mass movement of frogs for human consumption – often unregulated or mislabelled – also plays a role in ecosystem collapse and spreading disease.
Wiping out frogs leaves snakes starving and allows disease-carrying mosquitoes to multiply, new research has found.
Until 1987, India was the world’s primary exporter of wild-caught frogs, leaving populations heavily depleted and farmers dependent on large quantities of pesticides to control pests and mosquitoes. Ecologists fear that Indonesia, now the source of more than two-thirds of frogs’ legs in supermarkets worldwide, is heading the same way.
And keeping frogs in such cramped conditions, without water, allows them to succumb to viruses.
Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at Nottingham University, said although the risk to humans was probably very small, there was certainly the risk of spreading disease among frogs.
The 2011 report said: “Due to the mounting evidence that the chytrid fungus and ranaviruses are distributed through frogs traded live, in 2009 the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), specified conditions for handling processed and live frogs (eg health certificates and risk mitigation measures) in its Aquatic Animal Health Code.”
A spokeswoman for Peta Asia said: “Not only is this cruelty and suffering abhorrent, but eating animals – whether it’s frogs or chickens – fuels the demand for live animal markets. The typically filthy conditions of these markets are hotbeds for deadly viruses to multiply and spread. For the good of all living, feeling beings – including humans – they must all be shut down immediately.”
We’re hearing that the Trump administration will soon issue its final rule to roll back lifesaving clean car standards — which, if left in place, would help save drivers billions at the pump and eliminate billions of tons of carbon emissions.
Americans overwhelmingly support stronger vehicle emissions standards. Yet, three major automakers — GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler — recently sided with the Trump administration’s attacks on clean car standards.
NRDC and our allies are fighting back against these car companies’ attack on state safeguards — working hard to convince them to reverse course and support what’s best for our planet and our health, not their short-term profits.
NRDC’s attorneys are fighting this attempt to block state efforts — and stand ready to file a lawsuit against the broader rollback. Public pressure will help. The CEOs of GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler need to hear from you that their actions are unacceptable.
Here we want to share a little more about these wonderful animals who, thanks to man; are either listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
World Pangolin Day is an opportunity for pangolin enthusiasts to join together in raising awareness about these unique mammals — and their plight. Pangolin numbers are rapidly declining in Asia and Africa.
The demand for pangolins comes mostly from China, where pangolin scales are unfortunately believed to be a cure-all of sorts and pangolin flesh is considered a delicacy. In Vietnam, pangolins are frequently offered at restaurants catering to wealthy patrons who want to eat rare and endangered wildlife. There is no evidence to support claims regarding medicinal properties of pangolin scales or any other part of the pangolin.
Pangolins or scaly anteaters[2] are mammals of the order Pholidota (from the Greek word φολῐ́ς, “horny scale”). The one extant family, Manidae, has three genera: Manis, which comprises four species living in Asia; Phataginus, which comprises two species living in Africa; and Smutsia, which comprises two species also living in Africa.[3] These species range in size from 30 to 100 cm (12 to 39 in). A number of extinct pangolin species are also known.
Pangolins have large, protective keratin scales covering their skin; they are the only known mammals with this feature. They live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species. Pangolins are nocturnal, and their diet consists of mainly ants and termites, which they capture using their long tongues. They tend to be solitary animals, meeting only to mate and produce a litter of one to three offspring, which are raised for about two years.
The physical appearance of a pangolin is marked by large hardened overlapping plate-like scales, which are soft on newborn pangolins, but harden as the animal matures. They are made of keratin, the same material from which human fingernails and tetrapodclaws are made, and are structurally and compositionally very different from the scales of reptiles. The pangolin’s scaled body is comparable in appearance to a pine cone. It can curl up into a ball when threatened, with its overlapping scales acting as armor, while it protects its face by tucking it under its tail. The scales are sharp, providing extra defense from predators.
Pangolins can emit a noxious-smelling chemical from glands near the anus, similar to the spray of a skunk. They have short legs, with sharp claws which they use for burrowing into ant and termite mounds and for climbing.
The tongues of pangolins are extremely long and – like those of the giant anteater and the tube-lipped nectar bat – the root of the tongue is not attached to the hyoid bone, but is in the thorax between the sternum and the trachea. Large pangolins can extend their tongues as much as 40 cm (16 in), with a diameter of only 0.5 cm (0.20 inches.
Most pangolins are nocturnal animals which use their well-developed sense of smell to find insects. The long-tailed pangolin is also active by day, while other species of pangolins spend most of the daytime sleeping, curled up into a ball.
Arboreal pangolins live in hollow trees, whereas the ground-dwelling species dig tunnels to a depth of 3.5 m (11 ft).
Some pangolins walk with their front claws bent under the foot pad, although they use the entire foot pad on their rear limbs. Furthermore, some exhibit a bipedal stance for some behaviour and may walk a few steps bipedally. Pangolins are also good swimmers.
Pangolins are insectivorous. Most of their diet consists of various species of ants and termites and may be supplemented by other insects, especially larvae. They are somewhat particular and tend to consume only one or two species of insects, even when many species are available to them. A pangolin can consume 140 to 200 g (4.9 to 7.1 oz) of insects per day. Pangolins are an important regulator of termite populations in their natural habitats.
Pangolins have very poor vision, so they rely heavily on smell and hearing. Pangolins also lack teeth; therefore they have evolved other physical characteristics to help them eat ants and termites. Their skeletal structure is sturdy and they have strong front legs that are useful for tearing into termite mounds. They use their powerful front claws to dig into trees, ground, and vegetation to find prey, then proceed to use their long tongues to probe inside the insect tunnels and to retrieve their prey.
The structure of their tongue and stomach is key to aiding pangolins in obtaining and digesting insects. Their saliva is sticky, causing ants and termites to stick to their long tongues when they are hunting through insect tunnels. Without teeth, pangolins also lack the ability to chew; however, while foraging, they ingest small stones (gastroliths) which accumulate in their stomachs to help to grind up ants. This part of their stomach is called the gizzard, and it is also covered in keratinous spines. These spines further aid in the grinding up and digestion of the pangolin’s prey.
Some species, such as the tree pangolin, use their strong, prehensile tails to hang from tree branches and strip away bark from the trunk, exposing insect nests inside.
Threats to this wonderful little animal
Pangolins are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine in southern China and Vietnam because their scales are Pangolins are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine in southern China and Vietnam because their scales are believed to have medicinal properties. Their meat is also considered a delicacy. 100,000 are estimated to be trafficked a year to China and Vietnam, amounting to over one million over the past decade. This makes it the most trafficked animal in the world. This, coupled with deforestation, has led to a large decrease in the numbers of pangolins. Some species, such as Manis pentadactyla have become commercially extinct in certain ranges as a result of overhunting In November 2010, pangolins were added to the Zoological Society of London‘s list of evolutionarily distinct and endangered mammals. All eight species of pangolin are assessed as threatened by the IUCN, while three are classified as critically endangered. All pangolin species are currently listed under Appendix I of CITES which prohibits international trade, except when the product is intended for non-commercial purposes and a permit has been granted.
Pangolins are also hunted and eaten in many parts of Africa and are one of the more popular types of bush meat, while local healers use the pangolin as a source of traditional medicine.
Though pangolins are protected by an international ban on their trade, populations have suffered from illegal trafficking due to beliefs in East Asia that their ground-up scales can stimulate lactation or cure cancer or asthma. In the past decade, numerous seizures of illegally trafficked pangolin and pangolin meat have taken place in Asia. In one such incident in April 2013, 10,000 kg (11 short tons) of pangolin meat were seized from a Chinese vessel that ran aground in the Philippines. In another case in August 2016, an Indonesian man was arrested after police raided his home and found over 650 pangolins in freezers on his property. The same threat is reported in many countries in Africa, especially Nigeria, where the animal is on the verge of extinction due to overexploitation. The overexploitation comes from hunting pangolins for game meat and the reduction of their forest habitats due to deforestation caused by timber harvesting. The pangolin are hunted as game meat for both medicinal purposes and food consumption.
Man, as with everything; the ‘intelligent’ destroyer of everything that lives in this world !
In an accompanying post to social media, the group detailed the pod’s last moments as they were forced into what is known as the “killing cove” in Taiji, Japan on Tuesday.
“For sentient, self-aware, intelligent and intensely social animals, the level of suffering involved in the entire drive and slaughter process is unimaginable,” they said.
The pod of melon-headed whales huddled together before they were slaughtered. Source: Dolphin Project
“No lives were spared.”
The activists then captured the aftermath of the hunt, sharing images online of slaughtered dolphins with their tails tied together.
Dolphin Project founder Ric O’Barry told Yahoo News Australia he hopes the horrifying images will create change in Japan.
“(The hunt is) depressing, sadistic, but most of all unnecessary,” he said.
“This dolphin slaughter will end when the Japanese people rise up against it.
“Today’s exceptionally cruel event in Taiji is a good example of why it’s imperative to keep live streaming, why it’s important to keep a light on Taiji during the entire six months of the annual dolphin slaughter.”
Ric O’Barry is calling on tourists to stop visiting dolphin parks. Source: Dolphin Project
Japanese opposition to whale killing season
A growing number of Japanese nationals have been protesting against the hunt, and there has been a decline in the popularity of dolphin and whale meat.
At the beginning of the season each year, the dolphin hunt receives global attention, but as it continues on that coverage fades.
Mr O’Barry blames the continuation of the slaughter on the dolphin park industry, noting that many of them send trainers to the region to buy wild caught dolphins.
This year the dolphin drive quota is 1749, which includes 298 bottlenose dolphins and 200 melon-headed whales.
Once the trainers select the most prized dolphins for their theme parks the others are killed.
Most of the following dates back to 2014/15; and so the KaiBao Pharmaceutical ‘five year plan’ to develop and alternative to extracting bear bile should be reaching its end of its term now – 2020.
This is an old article from The Guardian newspaper in London; relating to bear bile farming.
KaiBao Pharmaceutical is a major outlet for industrial bear bile farms. But as public opinion has turned against the practice of bear bile farming, the company has developed a five-year plan to support alternatives and has even gained support from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
We have been looking into the 5 year plan to end bear bile farming and have not found much in the way of news. But this does not mean that things are not moving forward. The younger generation in the Far East areas where the bile is produced are without doubt, becoming more animal welfare conscious; which is great news as they will eventually stop this barbarity. Over the last year or so, here n England, we have been working with Animals Asia UK regarding alternatives to bear bile. We know that Jill has many of the ‘alternative plants’ located at the bear sanctuaries that AA operate. Much can now be reproduced using herbs and plants; so if people decide that they still need something of this type, cruelty free replacements are being researched all the time.
Positive results to help animal suffering often do not happen overnight – and so the fight goes on to stop this barbaric torment of beautiful bears.
Regards WAV.
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Is the end of ‘house of horror’ bear bile factories in sight?
After decades of activism against bear bile farms, a Chinese pharmaceutical company has announced it is developing a synthetic alternative
If we grant bears any modicum of intelligence or emotional experience, if we grant them the capacity to suffer pain or mental anguish, then bear bile farming – which houses bears in tiny cages for the breadth of their life in order to repeatedly extract their bile – poses a whole slew of ethical questions.
Indeed, for decades activists have been campaigning to stop the trade, which extracts bear bile for use in Chinese medicine.
But now, the industry that profits from it may succeed in doing it for them. Last year, Kaibao Pharmaceuticals, which supplies around half of the bear bile consumed in China, said it plans to develop a synthetic alternative to the popular curative using government funding.
“If the largest producer of bear bile is now looking into a synthetic alternative to their product, this can only be a good thing for the bears on the farms,” said Jill Robinson, the head of Animals Asia, a group that has been fighting bear farming in Asia for more than 15 years.
In a brief statement, Kaibao announced it was using poultry bile and “biotransformation technology” to create a substance chemically similar to bear bile, but without the bear in it. It intends to spend 12m yuan (£1.3m)of its own cash on developing the substance. In addition, Kaibao won a 5.3m yuan (£570,000) subsidy from China’s government and another 6 million yuan (£650,000) from the regional government. If successful, Kaibao would own the intellectual rights to the new poultry-based, but bear-like, bile.
“This is an opportunity for practitioners and consumers to make a shift from using threatened species, to legal and sustainable alternatives, illustrating the [Traditional Chinese Medicine’s] community’s commitment to conservation of wildlife and legal trade,” said Chris Shepherd, a bear bile trade expert and the conservation group, Traffic’s regional director of Southeast Asia.
“The shift, however, must come from within this community,” he added.
The most important component of bear bile is ursodeoxycholic acid, which has been shown in research to be effective against some ailments, such as select liver diseases. Yet, traditional practitioners prescribe bear bile for much more, including everything from a sore throat to epilepsy.
There are two ways to acquire the bile today: either kill a bear in the wild and cut out its gall bladder or in the case of the so-called bear bile farms (though factories may be a more apt word) repeatedly drain the gall bladders of captive animals.
Inside the bear bile factory
Robinson, who has visited a number of bear bile facilities, describes them as a house of horrors.
“[Bears] are constantly thirsty and hungry, get little or no veterinary care and essentially are tortured their whole lives,” she said. “Today… thousands of moon bears lie in constant pain and anguish in cages that are no bigger than coffins. A number of crude and brutal methods are used to extract their bile – rusting catheters, barbaric full-metal jackets with neck spikes, medicinal pumps and open, infected holes drilled into their bellies.”
The conditions are indeed alarming, according to many who follow the trade. Bears are kept in “crush cages,” which are deliberately too small for animals to stand or move much. In order to extract the bile – often daily – workers make permanent holes or fistula into the bear’s gall bladder. The bile is extracted, or ‘milked’ in the industry nomenclature, via metal tubes or other methods. Conditions are often so unsanitary, and bears so sick, that experts have raised public health concern about consuming bile from these places.
“Some bears are put into cages as cubs and never released,” said Robinson adding that “most farmed bears are starved, dehydrated and suffer from multiple diseases and malignant tumours that ultimately kill them.”
If the bears live long enough – and life-spans are short here – they can be bile milked for decades. However, usually after 10 to 20 years, bears stop producing enough to pay for their room and board. They are then commonly killed and their body parts sold.
Animal rights activists contend that these conditions cause massive psychological harm to the bears. In one rumored incident, a mother bear reportedly broke out of her cage while her cub was being milked. Reaching the cub, the mother suffocated it to death. Then the mother bear bashed her head against a wall until she perished. Some animal rights activists called it a murder-suicide, though the incident has never been substantiated.
Other observers have reported bears refusing to eat until they simply wasted away and died.
Still, not everyone views bear bile farming as cruel.
“The process of extracting bear bile is like turning on a tap: natural, easy and without pain. After they’re done, the bears can even play happily outside. I don’t think there’s anything out of the ordinary! It might even be a very comfortable process!” said Fang Shuting the head of the Chinese Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2012.
Shuting’s comments were in defence of another bear bile company’s, Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, plans to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange. By going public, Guizhentang hoped to triple its number of captive bears from 400 to 1,200.
But the company’s proposal was met with a passionate, grassroots campaign by Chinese activists that eventually derailed the listing, while Shuting’s comments were derided in social media and condemned by bear bile experts.
In all, experts estimate that there are at least 12,000 bears in bear bile facilities today. The bulk of the bears are housed in China, though Vietnam, Laos, Burma, South Korea also sport facilities. While there is significant demand for bear bile in China, it is also sold across Southeast Asia as far south as Malaysian Borneo.
Conservation concerns
Despite what it has become, the origins of bear farming was, at least rhetorically, in part to save wild bears. The Chinese have been consuming bear bile for over a thousand years. But before the rise of these farms, practitioners simply went into the woods, killed a bear, and then removed its gall bladder with the lucrative bile inside.
Over the centuries, not surprisingly, bears began to vanish. It’s a similar story to many other animals targeted by the Chinese medicine trade, such as tigers, pangolins, Sumatran and Javan rhinos, Asian turtles, and more. Like bears, these have all faced relentless hunting for purported curatives. This over-hunting, combined with massive habitat loss, has led to the complete destruction of some populations and declines in others.
The main target of the bear bile trade – the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) also known as the moon bear – is today listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Little is known about its total population, although as few as 25,000 may survive in the wild and it has certainly vanished from much of its former range and is in decline where it persists. The trade, however, has also targeted the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) – also vulnerable – and various subspecies of brown bear.
But solely from a conservation perspective – setting aside ethical concerns – the start of bear bile farms in the 1980s was initially hoped to relieve some pressure on wild bears. The idea was if bear farms raised a self-sustaining population of productive animals than poachers would have little impetus to capture or kill bears in the wild.
But experts say that hasn’t happened and there are a number of reasons why. For one thing, breeding bears isn’t cheap, and in most cases it’s probably still less expensive and easier to steal bears from the wild to repopulate farms with high turnover. For another, experts believe that more bear bile on the market has pushed practitioners to prescribe the substance more freely and for a broader array of ailments, many not connected to traditional use. Finally, there are those consumers that appear to prefer bear bile from wild animals, either viewing it as more authentic or concerned about the sanitary conditions – or lack thereof – on bear farms.
Illegal metal jacket had just been taken off by the farmer in Weihai in eastern Chinese province of Shandong, and flung into a corner at a bear bile farm in Weihai city, east Chinas Shandong province. Photograph: Imaginechina/Corbis
Robinson says the proof that bear farms are still stealing animals from the wild is as easy as looking at their mangled charges.
“Approximately 30% of rescued bears at our sanctuary in Chengdu are missing limbs or have obvious snare or trap wounds indicating that they were wild caught,” she said, adding that wild-caught bears are often more aggressive as well.
Yet, the paucity of oversight from the government – and the fact that much of the trade occurs underground – means it’s up to NGOs to make guesses.
“We almost have to take on a detective role, working through the injuries and wounds on the bears’ bodies and piecing the evidence together to continue the case against the industry,” Robinson added.
She said some bear facilities certainly do breed animals – and parade the cubs around to prove it – but “we believe that their breeding is not as successful as they would maintain, and it is clearly easier and cheaper to bring in wild caught bears than spend funds on denning pens and the extra food the females require during the breeding season.”
The fact that bear farms have not mitigated threats in the wild is outlined by a 2012 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) resolution calling for a phasing out of bear farms, including shuttering any illegal facilities and not establishing new ones. The motion said evidence was “lacking” that bear farms had lessened killing of wild bears.
Given this, a paper in Oryx last year suggested that we rename bear farms – which gives the sense of domesticated bears breeding freely – to “bile extraction facilities”.
Still, the Chinese government has recently challenged the IUCN resolution, according to Shepherd, claiming that the industry is capable of providing bear bile without resorting to wild bear capture or poaching.
This is a view echoed by Fang Shunting, “bear farming is the best way to protect wild bears. Given the market demand, how could we prevent wild bear hunting?”
Will traditional doctors get on board?
Now, let’s assume Kaibao Pharmaceuticals is successful in developing a synthetic alternative to bear bile, using poultry. Let’s also assume the company – which brings in more than $50m a year in net sales – aggressively pushes the alternative. The big question, according to Traffic’s Shepherd, is will traditional doctors accept that synthetic bear bile – made from poultry – is just as good as the real thing?
Convincing practitioners may prove quite difficult. For one thing, there are already a slew of alternatives available, yet bear bile remains in high demand. Indeed, ursodeoxycholic acid – the most important component of bear bile – has already been synthetically reproduced in the US and prescribed for very specific diseases.
“There are more than 50 herbal [and] legal alternatives that we would also strongly encourage practitioners and retailers to recommend to consumers,” said Shepherd. “If practitioners moves towards these alternatives, consumers would follow.”
So why would Kaibao’s synthetic alternative make any difference? Experts are cautiously hopeful because this version would come from one of the biggest sellers of bear bile today. Unlike Western synthetic versions, it would also be home grown. According to Shepherd, though, the most important thing for Kaibao is to convince traditional doctors.
“The key is the practitioners… people listen to, and trust, their doctor,” he said.
To this end, Animals Asia has long been asking practitioners to stop prescribing bear bile in a campaign they call Healing Without Harm.
“To date thousands of doctors have joined us in pledging never to use or prescribe bear bile,” noted Robinson.
What do animals experience
Of course, one of the ironies of Kaibao’s announcement is that their synthetic bear bile would still come from an animal. Although the company did not respond to repeated inquiries, it appears from their statement that they would likely be sourced from already-farmed poultry.
“This remains an ethical dilemma and the debate surrounding the use of all animal products continues and remains entirely worthwhile,” said Robinson. But, she added, “from the point of view of ending bear bile farming, and drastically reducing suffering of animals caged and mutilated for anything up to 30 years of their lives, this is a huge step.”
Bear torture?
In the meantime, more than 10,000 bears remain in these facilities where Robinson says they “suffer terribly”. But that brings us back to our first question. What do animals experience? Can we really know if the bears in these facilities suffer or are they “without pain” as Shuting argues?
“Bears, like us, are warm bloodied mammals with a central nervous system and pain receptors, indicating that they deserve the benefit of doubt, and indeed feel pain,” said Robinson.
Indeed, recent research has found that more animals experience suffering – or negative stimuli – than long believed. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have debated whether animals are generally automatons – driven solely by instinct and lacking thought or emotion – rather than distinct individuals with personalities and a rich emotional life. But the famous discoveries that chimps use tools, whales sing, and crows solve problems has largely crushed the automaton argument.
Recent research has even revealed that invertebrates – let alone mammals, birds, reptiles, etc – undergo suffering and have some level of what we call intelligence. For example, scientists have found that crustaceans – such as lobsters – feel pain and may even experience anxiety; wasps maintain long-term memory; bees are capable of counting; and even cockroaches have personalities.
Unlike these invertebrates, though, people have historically viewed bears as particularly clever and sensitive animals. For centuries, people have trained bears as entertainment. Now largely viewed as cruel, such training proved that these big mammals could learn new tasks quickly. Despite such displays of cleverness – and the fact that bears sport the largest brains relative to body size of any carnivore (bigger than your pet dog) – there has been surprisingly little research on bear intelligence.
One of the few studies came out last year when researchers found that bears could “count”. Researchers trained American black bears to select groupings of dots based on which was bigger or smaller. The bears performed as well in the study as primates. In 2012, another researcher documented a wild brown bear carefully selecting barnacle-covered rocks to scratch itself, possible evidence of tool use.
“[Bear] intelligence is often said to be equal to that of a dolphin or a three-year-old child. But I feel that this description really doesn’t do justice to their individuality, and intelligence that we have yet to properly define,” said Robinson, who points to her years of experience working with hundreds of rescued bears at Animals Asia facilities.
“They learn very quickly and work things through. They have pre-emptive and anticipatory behaviour that allows them to improve or benefit their own lives,” she said, noting that bears are particularly choosy about making comfortable beds – maybe Goldilocks was based on real observation – and that her rescued bears quickly learn to sleep during employees’ lunch break because “this is a quiet time at the sanctuaries and that little happens… just before our team return to work, the bears will start to rouse too.”
Robinson also said that rescued bears’ behaviour clearly changes over time. In the beginning, the bears shrink away as people approach and even moan aloud – anticipating that they will be harmed, according to Robinson, as they were in the bile factories – or become aggressive. But after months in the sanctuary, bears become more relaxed, more social, and maybe even, as one could describe it, psychologically sane.
“Bears that previously exploded in anger at the mere presence of a human are calm and trusting, and slowly they comprehend that the approach of our staff is a positive addition to their lives,” Robinson said, adding they are “no longer violently stereotypic, or aggressive”.
Animals Asia’s two sanctuaries – one in China and one in Vietnam – now houses around 500 bears, all rescued from bear bile facilities. If Kaibao synthetic alternative works, though, Animals Asia may have to take on the care of many more bears, though it doesn’t seem they would mind.
“[Rescued bears] ultimately prove to be fun-loving, trusting and forgiving of the species that caused them indescribable pain,” noted Robinson.
But can bears forgive? Are they capable of granting absolution – and even if they are would they really choose to forgive us? Perhaps we may never know, but either way it may well be that we need it.
WAV Comment – A very interesting article from the excellent National Geographic.
”The scale of the live wild animal trade in China is unclear, experts say. Many animals are poached, imported, and exported illegally—for food, medicine, trophies, and pets. The Chinese traditional medicine industry, which heavily relies on ancient belief in the healing powers of animal parts, is a massive driver of the trade”.
Maybe now it really is time that China looked at itself; and especially its antiquated beliefs that support healthy living by eating live animals is good for you (has it done anything to stop the virus ?) – and now makes all the necessary changes to get into Century 21 and stop being labelled as the international disease spreader by its unhygienic approaches to the treatment of sentient beings.
For Cordelia, the 18-year-old university student from Guangzhou, life is at a standstill. School is closed, and she can’t visit her family. Reflecting on the biological crisis that emerged from a cultural practice she can’t relate to, she says, “I believe nature gives back to us what we give to it.”
Maybe that time has now arrived – time for change !
More Chinese push to end wildlife markets as WHO declares coronavirus emergency
Media coverage of China’s wildlife markets sends the message that they’re hugely popular. In reality, many Chinese can’t relate.
At a wildlife market in Shenzhen, vendors display live reptiles and mammals for sale. In China, 54 species can be traded legally for human consumption. The coronavirus outbreak has thrust the live wildlife trade into the international spotlight.
On a farm near Beijing last September, a group of conservationists put in a call to police: They’d found thousands of live birds being stored in a barn. Police seized and released the birds—about 10,000 in all—which had been caught illegally with traps and were destined for restaurants and markets in southern China. Among them were yellow-breasted buntings, critically endangered songbirds whose numbers have been in freefall, largely because people in parts of China want to eat them.
The spread of a deadly strain of coronavirus, sourced to a wildlife market in Wuhan and now a global health emergency, according to the World Health Organization, has thrust China’s live wild animal trade into the spotlight. On January 26, China announced a ban on its wild animal trade until the crisis is over. Images of sick, suffering animals in markets, and videos of bats boiling alive in bowls of soup have circulated in media, sparking outrage globally and creating the impression that buying live wild animals for eating is a megascale phenomenon in China.
The reality is more nuanced. In Guangzhou, a city of 14 million in the southeast and a frequent destination for yellow-breasted buntings, eating wildlife appears exceedingly common. In Beijing, it’s exceedingly rare.
In reality, to many Chinese, consuming wild animals is a cultural outlier. State-controlled media outlets such as China Daily have published scathing editorials denouncing the practice and calling for a permanent wildlife trade ban. These calls in turn are amplified by thousands of Chinese citizens on state-censored social media networks such as Weibo, indicating that the government seems to be letting the momentum build.
The scale of the live wild animal trade in China is unclear, experts say. Many animals are poached, imported, and exported illegally—for food, medicine, trophies, and pets. The Chinese traditional medicine industry, which heavily relies on ancient belief in the healing powers of animal parts, is a massive driver of the trade.
The government allows 54 wild species to be bred on farms and sold for consumption, including minks, ostriches, hamsters, snapping turtles, and Siamese crocodiles. Many wild animals, such as snakes and birds of prey, are poached and brought to state-licensed farms, says Zhou Jinfeng, secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, an NGO in Beijing that helped with the bird rescue in September. Zhou says some farmers claim that their animals were bred legally in captivity for conservation but then sell them to markets or collectors.
It’s unknown how many live wildlife markets exist in China, but experts estimate they could number in the hundreds. Some department and big-box stores also sell wild meat and live amphibians for consumption. For market buyers, frogs are a common and inexpensive wildlife dish, says Peter Li, China policy specialist at Humane Society International and professor in East Asian politics at the University of Houston-Downtown. On the high end, Li says, only the rich can afford soup made with palm civet (a cat-size mammal native to jungles throughout Southeast Asia), fried cobra, or braised bear paw.
Such food was not part of Li’s experience growing up. “My parents never cooked wild animals, and [we’ve] never eaten them. I’ve never had snake—much less cobra.”
Rebecca Wong, assistant professor of sociology and behavioral sciences at the City University of Hong Kong, argues in her 2019 book about the illegal wildlife trade in China that consuming wildlife “is a common phenomenon in mainland China.” But Wong cautions against stereotyping this practice, arguing that the idea of the “Asian superconsumer” is a myth and that complex motivations are at play, including peer pressure, societal pressure, and the impulse to chase status.
A 2014 study that surveyed more than a thousand people in five Chinese cities found radically different practices in different parts of the country. In Guangzhou, 83 percent of people interviewed had eaten wildlife in the previous year. In Shanghai, 14 percent had, and in Beijing, just 5 percent. Nationwide, more than half the respondents said wild animals shouldn’t be eaten at all.
Same city, different cultural experiences
Charles, 22, and Cordelia, 18, are university students from the Guangzhou area, where wild animal consumption is purportedly high. I spoke with each through Instagram, where they use English names. (Both asked National Geographic not to use their last names—Instagram is banned in China, but like many young people, they use VPNs to access it.)
Charles says eating wild animals is very common in his community, but his family doesn’t partake much, and he eats only occasionally and out of curiosity. “Nowadays, older people buy them more than younger,” he says. He thinks it’s because of education.
Cordelia, who lives in downtown Guangzhou, says the practice isn’t at all common in her family or community. “My friends and family don’t really like eating wild animals, and we think it’s disgusting.” She explains that she sees it as “disrespectful and a strong violation to mother nature.” She believes the ongoing epidemic may move others to see it that way too. “I think after this terrible spread of coronavirus, citizens will realize that the belief that eating wild animals is beneficial is not reliable.”
Cordelia and Charles both support making the ban on the wild animal trade permanent, and they say they’ve seen an outpouring of support for it on Weibo.
Cordelia’s mention that belief in health benefits help drive consumption is reflected on market floors. Live animals sell for a higher price—often two to three times more—than dead ones. “People think food is more nutritious if it’s live and fresh,” Li says. “An animal may be dying, but it’s alive.”
A “cauldron of contagion”
In markets, animals “are dying, they are thirsty, they are in rusty cages and totally dirty,” Li says. They may be missing limbs or have open wounds from their capture in the wild or injuries sustained during transport. “The traders don’t handle them gently—they smash the cages down to the floor when unloading and loading. The animals suffer a lot.”
The chaos of the trade enables the spread of zoonotic diseases—those that spread from animals to humans—says Christian Walzer, chief global veterinarian at the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Wild animals, he explains, can carry viruses that “in a normal world, would not come into contact with humans.” These carriers aren’t sick—they’re simply “silent reservoirs.” But as we encroach into animals’ habitats, we increase our exposure.
Seventy percent of zoonotic diseases come from wildlife, says Erin Sorrell, an assistant research professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. The diseases can be notoriously devastating: HIV, Ebola, and SARS are among those that have made the leap from wildlife to humans, spawning international outbreaks.
In wildlife markets in China and Southeast Asia, there may be 40 species—birds, mammals, reptiles—“stacked on top of each other,” Walzer says. The mixing of air and bodily secretions allows viruses to exchange, potentially creating new strains. Walzer sums it up as a “cauldron of contagion.”
Evidence points to bats as the source of the Wuhan coronavirus. It’s unclear which species then transmitted the disease to humans, but in an assessment of the Wuhan market, the coronavirus was detected in the live wild animal section.
Preventing déjà vu
Many conservationists I spoke to believe that China’s temporary ban of the wildlife trade—which applies to all markets, grocery stores, and online sales and includes a quarantine on all breeding facilities—is likely to be largely successful. The government has set up a hotline for people to report violations. “This is an emergency situation,” Peter Li says. “Everyone is watching. Any trader who violates the ban will be reported.” On top of that, fear of coronavirus likely reduces demand—even if sellers are willing to offer live animals illegally, people may not want to buy them.
China has resorted to a ban before. In 2003, at the height of SARS epidemic, which is believed to have originated in civets, the government issued a temporary ban on the wildlife trade. Six months later, it lifted the ban, allowing breeding facilities to resume business. Li says it’s difficult to say whether the overall live wildlife trade has grown during the past two decades, but he believes that more of the transactions have gone underground to evade law enforcement.
There’s always the risk that this could happen again, Sorrell notes. “There’s been a 15-to-16-year gap [since SARS], but who’s to say it’s going to be another 16 years before we see the next disease emerge from a live animal market?”
To make the temporary ban permanent, there would need to be clarification on what it actually encompasses. Some of its terms are vague, leaving them open to interpretation at the local law enforcement level. For example, does the ban include dried wildlife parts, such as bone and scales? It should, several experts tell me, but as written, it’s unclear.
A permanent ban would face strong opposition from business interests, Li says. The State Forestry and Grassland Administration, which is responsible for issuing licenses to wildlife breeders, “has long been a spokesperson for the wildlife interest,” he says. (A Forestry Administration official had not responded to a request for comment before publication.)
Sorrell emphasizes the need for caution in the pursuit of a permanent ban.
“I would love to see wildlife be removed from markets, full stop,” she says. But if a ban is rushed without careful consideration, the entire wildlife trade could move underground, making it “even more dangerous for [a product] to be consumed because we’re not seeing where it’s being consumed or where it’s coming from.”
“For any ban to be effective, it will be important to get buy-in from citizens,” adds Caroline Dingle, an evolutionary biologist in the conservation forensics lab at Hong Kong University, who studies wildlife crime. “People need to believe that consuming wild animals is bad for them personally for any ban to work long-term.”
If a permanent ban is adopted, Li says, it would be important for the government to buy out or compensate farmers to make it possible for them to pursue a different livelihood.
Meanwhile, for yellow-breasted buntings, verging on extinction because of recent rapid consumption, something more has to give. It’s already against the law to catch the birds, but that hasn’t slowed their trade.
For Cordelia, the 18-year-old university student from Guangzhou, life is at a standstill. School is closed, and she can’t visit her family. Reflecting on the biological crisis that emerged from a cultural practice she can’t relate to, she says, “I believe nature gives back to us what we give to it.”
But she draws my attention to the unity she’s seen in the wake of the crisis and the outcry on Weibo and in Chinese newspapers. “I think,” she types over Instagram, “revolutionary change is highly possible.”
Australian summers can be tough for people and animals…
And while many of us can endure the hottest days with the help of air conditioning and plenty of fluids to keep us hydrated, our wildlife friends can suffer terribly during extreme heat, and even die. Here are 6 ways you can help make the difference between life and death for wildlife during increasingly hot and dry Aussie summers:
Click on this link to read the 6 ways that you can make the difference between life and death for Australian wildlife:
The Argentinian Esperanza base in Antarctica – seen in March 2014 – recorded its hottest day on record on Thursday. Photograph: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP via Getty Images
Antarctica logs hottest temperature on record with a reading of 18.3C
A new record set so soon after the previous record of 17.5C in March 2015 is a sign warming in Antarctica is happening much faster than global average
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3C, beating the previous record by 0.8C.
The reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent’s peninsula, beats Antarctica’s previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.
A tweet from Argentina’s meteorological agency on Friday revealed the record. The station’s data goes back to 1961.
The following is a repeat of an article in the latest OIPA newsletter relating to the Coronavirus. For pictures, please click on the link given at the end.
THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK AND ANIMAL WELFARE IN CHINA
With the escalation of the coronavirus, China banned the transport and sale of wild animals, prohibiting trading to markets, supermarkets, restaurants and online platforms.
It is believed that the source of the infection is the wild animal section of the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, which is known for selling live animals and slaughtering them on the spot. Here hygiene levels are extremely poor: wild and domesticated animals, along with their urine, faeces, and bodily fluids, come in contact with sales clerks and customers, with the animals being butchered on the floor, blood splashing everywhere and flies feasting on the carcasses.
To date, there are very few laws in China that protect animals from abuse and mistreatment but, hopefully, with the growing number of activists, especially among young people, along with increasing knowledge about health hazards, there will be more consideration regarding animal welfare in the near future.
The coronavirus infection has already spread across half a dozen nations, including Thailand, Japan, Australia, France, Canada and the United States, causing over 420 deaths and the lockdown of at least 13 Chinese cities.
Scientist have confirmed that the disease, as 70% of human pathogens, has been transmitted from an animal. It is believed that the source of the infection is the wild animal section of the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, in China, which is well known for selling unusual live animals and slaughtering them on the spot.
Among these, wolf pups, scorpions, squirrels, porcupines, turtles, crocodiles, monkeys, dogs, cats and other live animals are sold for human consumption. These type of markets are common across China, Vietnam and other areas of south-eastern Asia, and are called “wet-markets” because of the large quantities of water that are used to slop the floors. Here, sanitations standards hardly exist and hygiene levels are extremely poor: wild and domesticated animals, along with their urine, faeces, and bodily fluids, come in contact with sales clerks and customers, with the animals being butchered on the floor, blood splashing everywhere and flies feasting on the carcasses.
This is the ideal place for contamination to occur and for virus and bacteria to spread. It seems that the outbreak of both the avian flu and SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) originated in these wet markets as a consequence of keeping live animals.
The consumption of wild animal meat is common and considered a luxury in China, especially among the older generations. Moreover, wild and exotic animals and their parts are still used in traditional medicine to cure ailments or as aphrodisiacs. It is part of the Chinese culture, although consumers do not seem to be aware of the public health treat, especially when it is impossible to know the provenience of the animals and, therefore, to be sure if they are free of disease.
After the SARS outbreak in 2003, which killed over 750 people, there was a temporary ban on the wild animal markets. Experts feel like the Chinese government should then have learned that diseases can easily spread from animals to humans in markets where wild, farmed and domestic animals are clumped together in unhygienic conditions, but the ban was withdrawn. With the escalation of the coronavirus, China again banned the transport and sale of wild animals, prohibiting trading to markets, supermarkets, restaurants and online platforms. Unfortunately, the ban will only be in force until the epidemic will be eliminated across the country, leading to think that wildlife trade will be allowed again, as it did after the SARS crisis.
This is a vicious circle: the permanent ban on the sale of wildlife, in China and in other countries, is necessary to reduce the risk of new viruses to emerge, potentially even more dangerous than the past ones.
To date, there are very few laws in China that protect animals from abuse and mistreatment, although there is growing awareness regarding the concepts of animal welfare in some contexts, such as in research and in zoos. Livestock farming has incredibly increased in recent years and China is now one of the world’s main producer of animal-sourced food, but there is no requirement for humane slaughter.
Half of the global pig population and over 60% of farmed fish comes from this country. About 10,000 Asiatic black bears are kept it tiny cages for bile production and other animals, including endangered species, are exploited so their parts can be used for traditional medicine. China is also the biggest producer of fur, which has shocking farming and skinning practices.
Animal cruelty is not a punishable offence in Chinaand it also threatens people’s health and the ecosystem. The political environment does not seem interested in protecting animals, but, hopefully, with the growing number of activists, especially among young people, along with increasing knowledge about health hazards, there will be more consideration regarding animal welfare in the near future.
World Animals Voice 