Asian wet markets: brutal culinary norms that need to stop | Gabriel Baraldi

A wet market is a marketplace selling a combination of both living and dead animals,  such as fish, meat and produce, with the alive animals being slaughtered on the spot. As you can guess, it is not a place for the faint of heart. Typically, surfaces are awash with blood, fish scales, guts and bodily fluids. Birds, cats, dogs, civets, turtles, bats, frogs, badgers and many other animals packed into tight cages are a common sight. 

These wet markets exist in Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines, and like the SARS outbreak, the coronavirus can be traced back to them. That’s because the earliest patients of Covid-19 at the end of December 2019 all had a connection to the Hunan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. 

There are numerous reasons why these kinds of markets are extremely dangerous to the entire world. So much so that the UN Biodiversity Chief, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema is calling for an outright global end to them. Mrema says: “The message we are getting is if we don't take care of nature, it will take care of us,” - a reflection on what has happened during this global crisis. 

At the moment, there are laws to regulate trade on wildlife on a national level under each country’s constitution. However, it is only regulated on an international level by one trade body: the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. 

It’s time we acknowledge that the source of pain and misery inflicted upon these animals is now inflicting pain and misery to us all across the globe. 

But regardless of whether the virus was directly caused by wet markets, it’s important that we understand how serious a risk they are and will continue to be, unless challenged. Let me explain.

As many researchers of zoonotic diseases (diseases that jump from animals to humans) point out, the stress of living in such cruel and brutal conditions weakens the immune systems of wild and domestic captive animals. And the ambiguous mixture of wildlife is completely unhinged and unregulated. In a gruesome fashion, animal urine, feces and blood combine, creating infection on bodies that will later be consumed by humans, and overall creating a dangerous environment for anyone to be in. 

According to biologist Kevin Olival from the EcoHealth Alliance, wet markets are a haven for viruses from different species to mingle, swap bits of their genetic code and spread from one animal to the next. At some point, a new strain may well jump onto humans, causing an outbreak like the one we’re experiencing.

This is one of the many reasons why leading medical experts such as Anthony Fauci and Zhong Nanshan are also calling for the international closure of these inhumane and foul markets.

But beyond these crucial points which link to the impact it has on our health and on our economies, there is another reason we should care - the case for compassion. 

It’s plain to see from newly surfaced footage of Asian wet markets since the COVID-19 outbreak that many of them engage in unacceptable, repulsive practices and methods - and do so casually. Videos show the torture being carried out as hungry customers watch with anticipation and excitement. We’ve seen turtles having their shells cut off while alive; dogs being slowly boiled alive, marinating in a large pan; living frogs skinned and with their hands and toes chopped off so that they can’t escape. 

Humane Society International (HSI) says that thirty million dogs a year are killed across Asia for meat. Many are stolen pets put on markets to be tortured, killed and sold. The so-called “man’s best friend” is an option on the menu shortly after some painful and dirty last days before a brutal death.

In China, there has been some small progress that has been made. In February, Chinese authorities banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. This was after it emerged that a market in Wuhan selling wild animals and wildlife meat could have been the starting point for the outbreak. This caused the Chinese government to crack down strongly on the trade. How seriously it will be enforced and for how long, we cannot yet know. And with the news of Wuhan wet markets reopening as the city returns to normal, the risk of another new disease and a whole new pandemic will always be there.

It is a picture of history repeating itself. Wet markets were banned from trading wildlife in China in 2003, after the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak. So we must not be complacent or feel rested at this latest change; we will likely see these gore sites reopened and returning to their previous habits when the dust settles.

Despite the Chinese people valuing the “freshness” of their food, these practices need to stop. Tackling this from both a humane perspective and a worldwide health and safety perspective, the need could not be clearer. After this pandemic, governments around the world need to pressure China into keeping current restrictions in place. 

As the globe’s second biggest economy, it’s high time China joined the rest of the world in laying out tougher laws and regulation for animal rights, including a change in their brutal cultural norms. The suffering and unethical, unhygienic culinary habits have to change. Before we are forced to endure yet another destabilising global crisis.