Experts Call for a Worldwide Ban on Live Animal Markets as Animal Equality Petition Signatures Soar Past 300,000

Live animal/ wet markets pose a unique and immediate threat to both human health and animal welfare due to a complete lack of slaughter regulations and sanitation guidelines. It is in these open-air markets, where wild and domesticated animals are sold and slaughtered together, that deadly viruses like SARs and MERS originated. There’s strong scientific evidence that COVID-19 started in one, too. 

“The message we are getting is if we don’t take care of nature, it will take care of us. It would be good to ban the live animal markets.”

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the acting head of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity

EXPERTS SOUND THE ALARM: On Monday the United Nations head of biodiversity, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, called the global community to do more to regulate wet markets, citing links between the destruction of nature and the creation of new illnesses. Mrema’s push for regulation comes just days after America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged the international community to immediately close wet markets, calling the current COVID-19 crisis a “direct result” of the conditions that foster a breeding ground for disease in these markets.

PUBLIC OUTCRY CONTINUES: Just last week, Animal Equality launched an international campaign calling on the United Nations to immediately and permanently ban wet markets worldwide; and already we’ve garnered over 300,000 signatures. It’s clear that the public and experts have spoken: wet markets are hell on Earth for animals, and dangerous to human health. They must be closed immediately. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Follow the CDC’s guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and join us in calling on the UN to ban wet markets everywhere. We’re getting closer, and we can put an end to these cruel and dangerous places, but we can’t do it without you!