Attacks and calls to ban wet markets because of their potential for spreading diseases such as Covid-19 may be missing the point, say experts.
Earlier this week Sir Paul McCartney, a long-time vegetarian campaigner, called wet markets medieval and said that it made sense to ban them. When you’ve got the obscenity of some of the stuff that’s going on there and what comes out of it, they might as well be letting off atomic bombs. It’s affecting the whole world.
Last week more than 60 US lawmakers called for a global ban on what are referred to interchangeably as live wildlife markets or wet markets. And animal welfare groups have also been calling for a ban.
According to US lawmakers: Wet’ markets in particular pose a threat to global public health because wildlife comes from many different locations without any standardised sanitary or health inspection processes.
Animal Equality argues that the markets are not only inhumane and a source of intensive suffering inflicted on farmed animals, but that they are also a threat to public health.
But experts who know the markets well say that they are just one link in a chain of both legal and illicit wildlife trade that needs intensive regulation, monitoring and enforcement to reduce heath risks, demand and consumption.
In China, much of Asia, and some other parts of the world, a wet market is a term used for any market where fresh meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, and other perishable goods, are sold in an open-air setting. The wet part comes from sellers sloshing water on produce to keep it cool and fresh.
While the markets may be considered unsanitary by western standards, most wet markets in China do not sell live animals other than fish in tanks, or sometimes in open pools.
Many markets in China stopped selling live poultry after widespread avian flu outbreaks led provinces and local governments to ban such sales over the past decade.
And while it is rare to see wildlife sold in these markets, the practice has continued in poorly regulated sites, such as the now-infamous Wuhan South China Seafood Market, which was suspected to be a primary source for spreading Covid-19 during late 2019.
If we really want to prevent future pandemics, we have to do a lot more than just stop live wildlife being slaughtered at markets or wild meat being sold at markets, Debbie Banks, head of the tiger campaign at the Environmental Investigation Agency, told the Guardian.
In some countries, wildlife is commercially harvested and commercially farmed and transported direct to restaurants, consumed at private banquets, and used in traditional medicine, so there is a need to address demand and other retail venues besides wet markets, she said.
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