PeTA urges authorities to close live animal meat markets in India

CHENNAI: The outbreak of Covid-19 has been linked to wet markets in China, though one theory links the disease to factory-farmed pigs. And now, as the pandemic rages on , People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (

PeTA

) India has released footage recorded at live-animal markets (or "wet markets") across India, revealing dog slaughter, wildlife-meat trade, and shockingly filthy conditions as well as rampant violations of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; and The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

The animal welfare organisation is calling on authorities to close down all such live-animal meat and wildlife markets and follow the lead of China, where there is a plan to phase out live-poultry markets like those found throughout India because they risk spreading disease.

“The next deadly virus will be just around the corner as long as filthy 'wet markets' filled with raw meat and sick and stressed animals are permitted to operate," says PeTA India vegan outreach coordinator Dr Kiran Ahuja. "PeTA India is calling for the closure of these petri dishes for pandemics."

SARS and various deadly bird flus, including H5N1, which has a 60% mortality rate in humans, have been linked to Chinese live-animal meat markets, too. Indian chicken farms are periodically plagued by bird flu. Other diseases which can infect humans – including MERS, swine flu, and even HIV and Ebola – were also traced back to animals.

The footage shows men at Ghazipur Murga Mandi in Delhi slitting live chickens' throats, skinning them and sorting through their flesh, soaked in blood and guts, with their bare hands, as well as bags of live, struggling crabs and eels at a fish market in Malancha, West Bengal.

Captured dogs were killed and sold for meat at the Keera Bazaar in Dimapur, Nagaland. (Recently, Nagaland decided to stop sale of dog meat but the illegal trade continues in other states.)

In Manipur, sellers at the Nute Bazar handle the charred remains of wild animals, including monkeys, wild boars, porcupines and deer, and at Churachandpur market, meat from various wild animals was sold.