Beijing is said to have approved the use of bear bile to treat Covid-19. (Chiew Lin May/Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre pic)
PETALING JAYA: Two environmental groups have warned of a threat to the survival of the already endangered Malaysian sun bear, now that China is promoting bear bile as treatment for Covid-19.
Spokesmen for Monitor Conservation Research Society and the Malaysian Ecotourism and Conservation Society (Ecomy) told FMT they feared a rise in incidents of poaching.
Loretta Shepherd, Monitor’s communication coordinator, cited a recent study showing poachers were continuing to hunt for sun bears to cater to a demand by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Sabah and Sarawak.
According to the study, conducted last year, bear bile products were sold in 35% of traditional medicine outlets in Sabah and 19.3% of those in Sarawak.
Shepherd acknowledged that greater environmental awareness and reductions in the sun bear population had caused a steady drop in the use of bear bile over the years, but she said the threat of extinction remained serious.
She warned of the possibility of local traditional medicine practitioners following Beijing’s suit in promoting bear bile as a cure for Covid-19.
“Desperate consumers may easily be swayed,” she said.
“There is a very real chance that our sun bears will be at increased risk. We could see an increase in the use of bear bile medicine and a rise in the poaching of sun bears.”
A recent news report said Beijing had approved the use of bear bile to treat Covid-19, weeks after it banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans.
Last month, China’s National Health Commission issued guidelines recommending the use of an injection that contains bear bile powder, goat horn and three other medicinal herbs for the treatment of critically ill coronavirus patients.
Ecomy CEO Andrew Sebastian said he found it “repugnant” that Beijing was promoting the use of bear bile.
He accused China of “always fuelling the demand and supply chain” for wildlife.
“The demand for bear bile will increase and poachers will target the animals for current and future use.
“Local consumption is also something we need to be worried about,” he said.
Sebastian warned of a strain on the resources that the government has invested in for the protection of wildlife.
Nevertheless, he called for the investment of more resources into efforts to combat wildlife trafficking, saying such resources were especially needed in monitoring and the enforcement of laws.
He also claimed there is no possibility that a vaccine against Covid-19 could be found from wildlife sources.
Shepherd said promoting bear bile as medicine would perpetuate the notion that wild animals could continue to be exploited despite the availability of viable, legal and safe alternatives that do not endanger wildlife or people.
Two new types of bird flu infections currently spreading in China could jump to humans threatening global health, scientists warn.
The avian influenza virus subtype H16N3, first identified in 1975 and currently detectable among wild birds in many countries, has so far not posed a threat to humans so far.
But a team of researchers from State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology in Harbin, China, have isolated two H16N3 subtype influenza viruses that can bind to both human and avian-type cell receptors, according to findings published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases[1].
The team led by Li Yulei also found evidence that genetic material from other species has been introduced into the H16N3 avian influenza virus, which suggests that it may infect other species and could therefore pose a threat to animal and human health in the future.
The findings come after the scientists carried out extensive surveillance of the H16N3 subtype of bird flu in large gatherings of wild birds in China from 2017 to 2019.
“Segments from other species have been introduced into the H16N3 avian influenza virus, which may alter its pathogenicity and host tropism, potentially posing a threat to animal and human health in the future,” the researchers wrote. “Consequently, it is necessary to increase monitoring of the emergence and spread of avian influenza subtype H16N3 in wild birds.”
Animal influenza viruses are distinct from human seasonal flu viruses and do not easily spread from human to human.
But some zoonotic influenza viruses – animal influenza viruses that have jumped species and infect humans – cause disease in people ranging from a mild illness to death.
The most recent case of a zoonotic virus is the SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that began in Wuhan, China, and has spread worldwide so far infecting 1.8 million people and claiming more than 113,000 lives[2].
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy and overwhelmed healthcare systems in a number of countries including the United States.
China has emerged as ground zero for zoonotic pandemic outbreaks due to the prevalence of so-called wet markets where live animals – including endangered wild species – are sold for food.
The A(H5N1) virus spread around the world following a bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong, China in 1997 and human infections with the influenza A(H7N9) virus were reported in China in 2013, according to the World Health Organization [3].
While Hong Kong has taken steps to tackle the avian influenza in the Special Administrative Region’s wet markets, multiple different subtypes of avian influenza (H1N1, H2N9, H3N2, H3N3, H3N6, and H4N6) continue to circulate in live-poultry markets in mainland China[4].
The mortality rate of bird flu is estimated to be 60% making it at least ten times more lethal than COVID-19.
Bill Mayer defended referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” as scientists have been naming diseases and other conditions after their country of origin for years.
Speaking during an episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, the host also dismissed suggestions that referring to COVD-19 as the Chinese Virus is racist and that the country needs to be blamed for the pandemic.
“It’s not racist to point out that eating bats is bat**** crazy,” he said in reference to the wet markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected.
“Scientists, who are generally pretty liberal, have been naming diseases after the places they came from for a very long time,” Maher said. “MERS stands for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, it’s plastered all over airports and no one blogs about it.
“So why should China get a pass?
Maher also hit out at a tweet from Congressman Ted Lieu who said it was “just as stupid to call it the Milan virus” given the large number of confirmed cases in northern Italy.
“No, that would be way stupider because it didn’t come from Milan. And if it did, I guarantee we’d be calling it the Milan Virus,” Mayer added. “Can’t we even have a pandemic without getting offended? When they named Lyme Disease after a town in Connecticut, the locals didn’t get all ticked off.
“This isn’t about vilifying a culture. This is about facts, it’s about life and death,” Mayer said. “So when people say, ‘what if people hear Chinese Virus and blame China?’ the answer is, we should blame China.
“Not Chinese Americans, but we can’t stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea. There are always going to be idiots out there who want to indulge their prejudices, but this is an emergency.
“Sorry Americans, we’re going to have to ask you to keep two ideas in your head at the same time. This has nothing to do with Asian Americans and it has everything to do with China.
“We can’t afford the luxury anymore of non-judginess towards a country with habits that kill millions of people everywhere, because this isn’t the first time. SARS came from China, and the Bird flu, and the Hong Kong flu, and the Asian flu. Viruses come from China like shortstops come from the Dominican Republic.”
Officials and organizations have commend political figures, including President Donald Trump, for referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus” for creating stigma around Asian communities and fueling racist attacks.
“I think we’ve been very clear right since the beginning of this event that viruses know no borders and they don’t care [about] your ethnicity, the color of your skin, how much money you have in the bank,” Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s health emergency programs, told the South China Morning Post.
“It’s really important that we are careful in the language we use lest it lead to profiling of individuals associated with the virus.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James also hit out at those calling it the Chinese Virus while setting up a dedicated hotline to deal with the sharp rise in the number of coronavirus-linked hate crimes in the city.
“As we face an unprecedented and uncertain time for New York, the United States, and the world, we must reiterate the fact that this pandemic does not give anyone an excuse to be racist, xenophobic, or biased,” James said.
There are more than 1.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, with 103,257 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University. A total of 378, 838 people have managed to recover from the virus.
Bill Maher Performs During New York Comedy Festival at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on November 5, 2016 in New York CityNICHOLAS HUNT/GETTY
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advice on Using Face Coverings to Slow Spread of COVID-19
CDC recommends wearing a cloth face covering in public where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.
A simple cloth face covering can help slow the spread of the virus by those infected and by those who do not exhibit symptoms.
Cloth face coverings should be washed regularly. A washing machine will suffice.
Practice safe removal of face coverings by not touching eyes, nose, and mouth, and wash hands immediately after removing the covering.
World Health Organization advice for avoiding spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
Hygiene advice
Clean hands frequently with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand rub.
Wash hands after coughing or sneezing; when caring for the sick; before, during and after food preparation; before eating; after using the toilet; when hands are visibly dirty; and after handling animals or waste.
Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
Avoid touching your hands, nose and mouth. Do not spit in public.
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or bent elbow when coughing or sneezing. Discard the tissue immediately and clean your hands.
Medical advice
Avoid close contact with others if you have any symptoms.
Stay at home if you feel unwell, even with mild symptoms such as headache and runny nose, to avoid potential spread of the disease to medical facilities and other people.
If you develop serious symptoms (fever, cough, difficulty breathing) seek medical care early and contact local health authorities in advance.
Note any recent contact with others and travel details to provide to authorities who can trace and prevent spread of the disease.
Stay up to date on COVID-19 developments issued by health authorities and follow their guidance.
Mask and glove usage
Healthy individuals only need to wear a mask if taking care of a sick person.
Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.
Masks are effective when used in combination with frequent hand cleaning.
Do not touch the mask while wearing it. Clean hands if you touch the mask.
Learn how to properly put on, remove and dispose of masks. Clean hands after disposing of the mask.
Do not reuse single-use masks.
Regularly washing bare hands is more effective against catching COVID-19 than wearing rubber gloves.
The COVID-19 virus can still be picked up on rubber gloves and transmitted by touching your face.
Wuhan, China reports no new local cases of COVID-19 in a 24-hour period as Italy sees its deadliest day of the outbreak; Benjamin Hall reports from London.
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While rumors have swirled that the coronavirus pandemic originated in bats and then infected another animal that passed it onto people at a market in the southeastern Chinese city of Wuhan, scientists have not yet determined exactly how the new coronavirus infected people.
Butchered dogs displayed for sale at a stall inside a meat market during the local dog meat festival, in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo)
“You’ve got live animals, so there’s feces everywhere. There’s blood because of people chopping them up,” Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, which works to protect wildlife and public health from emerging diseases, told the Associated Press last month.
Fresh seafood on sale at a wet market in Hong Kong, China. (REUTERS/Ann Wang)
“Wet markets,” as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, are places “for the sale of fresh meat, fish, and produce.” They also sell an array of exotic animals.
A vendor prepares vegetables for sale at a wet market in Shenzhen, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, before its closure, advertised dozens of species such as giant salamanders, baby crocodiles and raccoon dogs that were often referred to as wildlife, even when they were farmed, according to the AP.
Vendors sell fish and poultry at an outdoor wet market in Shanghai’s northern district of Zhabei. (PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
And like many other “wet markets” in Asia and elsewhere, the animals at the Wuhan market lived in close proximity as they were tied up or stacked in cages.
Poultry (FILE)
Animals in “wet markets” are often killed on-site to ensure freshness — yet the messy mix raises the odds that a new virus will jump to people handling the animals and start to spread, experts say.
Chinese seafood vendors prepare fresh fish at a wet market in Beijing. (TEH ENG KOON/AFP via Getty Images)
“I visited the Tai Po wet market in Hong Kong, and it’s quite obvious why the term ‘wet’ is used,” an NPR reporter wrote about them earlier this year.
Seafood at Aberdeen Wet Market. (Chen Xiaomei/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)
“Live fish in open tubs splash water all over the floor. The countertops of the stalls are red with blood as fish are gutted and filleted right in front of the customers’ eyes. Live turtles and crustaceans climb over each other in boxes,” he described. “Melting ice adds to the slush on the floor. There’s lots of water, blood, fish scales and chicken guts. Things are wet.”
Wildlife markets and related trade are a dangerous vector for transmission of zoonotic diseases. We applaud this bipartisan congressional letter calling for aggressive action toward a global shut down of live wildlife markets and a ban on the international trade of live wildlife that is not intended for conservation purposes. Photo by pasindu/pixabay
Consistent with the recommendations in Wildlife Markets and COVID-19, the Humane Society International report released earlier this week, and our own messaging on the pandemic, Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), Representatives Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and more than sixty of their colleagues have sent an urgent letter seeking action from three major global health entities. In their communication to the Directors-General of the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, they asked the three groups “to take aggressive action toward a global shut down of live wildlife markets and a ban on the international trade of live wildlife that is not intended for conservation purposes.” This is one of several calls by elected officials for worldwide action to reduce future pandemic risks.
Humane Society Legislative Fund staff members worked closely with Democratic and Republican congressional offices to develop the case laid out in the joint letter. Together with leadership on both sides of the aisle, we’re going to work to step up the pressure to shut these markets down.
In Wildlife Markets and COVID-19, our colleagues urged governments around the world at all levels to ban or severely limit all trade, transport and consumption of wildlife, immediately. The Humane Society of the United States, the Humane Society Legislative Fund and Humane Society International have long pointed to wildlife markets and related trade as a dangerous vector for transmission of zoonotic diseases. We’ve stated the case plainly ourselves. We must close wildlife markets selling wild animals, particularly mammals and birds, in every nation, and we must halt the import, export and internal transport of live wildlife or wildlife meat intended for sale in such markets or in other contexts, whether the animals were captured in the wild or farmed. It’s not just for the animals’ sake; it’s for our own.
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
In a newly published list of animals categorized as livestock in China, the country’s agriculture ministry made a surprising announcement tucked away at the bottom of the policy document: dogs are no longer to be treated as mere livestock, but as loyal companions.
“Alongside the development of human civilization and the public’s care toward protecting animals, dogs have now evolved from being traditional livestock to companion animals,” the notice dated April 8 read (link in Chinese), adding that dogs aren’t typically regarded as livestock worldwide.
The official announcement follows on the heels of February’s nationwide ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife in China. The country’s top legislature fast-tracked the enactment of the ban in large part due to widespread suspicions that the Covid-19 outbreak stemmed from a novel coronavirus being transmitted from wild animals to humans. Those suspicions arose because some of the early confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the epicentre of the country’s outbreak, had exposure to the Huanan seafood wholesale market, where live animals were on sale. In fact, initial diagnostic guidelines (pdf) established by China’s national health commission stipulated that Covid-19 patients needed to have an epidemiological link to Wuhan or a wet market in the city.
Included on the latest list of livestock animals are 13 types of “traditional livestock” such as pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys, and 18 types of “special livestock” such as various kinds of deer, all of which could be raised for the purpose of eating, according to the ministry. The list is “dynamic” and could be widened to include other animals, according to the February decision banning eating of wild animals in China. The ministry is gathering public opinions on the draft document until May 8.
Although Beijing has said that the consumption of wild land animals not included in this list will be banned (link in Chinese), it is unclear whether dogs, which traditionally are not counted as wild animals, would also be protected from this fate after the “upgrade” of its status by the ministry. Calls to the ministry went unanswered, while it did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
However, given the clear classification of dogs as companion animals by the ministry, local governments in China could follow suit to set up regulations banning the consumption of not only wild life, but also pets. Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, became the first city in the country to ban the eating of cats and dogs, as well as state-protected and other terrestrial wild animals, days before the ministry’s announcement.
Around 10 million dogs and four million cats are estimated to be slaughtered and eaten in China every year, according to Hong Kong-based animal welfare group Animals Asia, but the practice is coming under increasing criticism from the country’s growing ranks of pet lovers. In 2016, a group of dog lovers tried to stop a truck that was carrying 320 dogs headed for a slaughterhouse on a highway in Hebei province. They ended up getting into a fight with the truck driver and causing a massive traffic jam.
In an interview on Fox & Friends, Dr. Anthony Fauci ― the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases & one of the top experts on the White House Coronavirus Task Force ― urged China to permanently close the “wet markets” that sell live & exotic animals and have been linked to outbreaks of severe viruses:
“I think they should shut down those things right away. It boggles my mind how, when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we don’t just shut it down. I don’t know what else has to happen to get us to appreciate that. I think there are certain countries in which this is very commonplace. I would like to see the rest of the world really lean with a lot of pressure on those countries that have that, because what we are going through right now is a direct result of that.”
What are “wet markets”?
“Wet markets” are marketplaces, sometimes open air, that sell fresh meat, fish, and other perishable goods. Some wet markets sell living animals, including wildlife & domesticated animals like dogs & cats, for food.
Their name comes from melting ice used to preserve food, as well as water used to clean blood & excrement on the floor from the animals, which may be stored & butchered on-site. Many wet markets are unsanitary and cramped, which creates conditions for the transmission of diseases from animals to humans through bacteria & viruses.
Wet markets are relatively common in some parts of the world, including China, Southeast Asia, and Africa ― although there may be substantial differences by region. For example, a 2014 study in China found only 5% of people in Beijing consumed wild animals in the prior year, whereas 83% of people in Guangzhou had.
China’s wet markets originated in the late 1970s after the failure of the Chinese Communist Party’s Cultural Revolution, which produced a famine that killed tens of millions of Chinese people. Because the CCP couldn’t invest in livestock production, it encouraged farmers to collect wild animals like bats, civets (cat-like animals), pangolins (endangered armadillo-like animals), rats, snakes, and others to breed for consumption & sale at local markets.
How are wet markets linked to viral outbreaks?
The 2002-2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) originated in a colony of horseshoe bats in a cave in China’s Yunnan Province, which passed the virus onto civets that in turn served as a vector to pass the virus to humans after they were sold as food at a wet market in China’s Guangdong Province. China’s government temporarily closed the wet markets during the SARS epidemic, which killed 774 people around the world, but lifted the ban six months after its conclusion.
Infectious disease experts haven’t yet definitively pinpointed how the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak began in Wuhan, China. A cluster of cases in people who went to a wet market known as the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market have raised suspicion that that coronavirus was passed from animals to humans there. Studies have suggested that COVID-19 originated in bats, and that pangolins may have been the intermediate host that served as a vector in the virus’ transmission to humans.
Graham said in an interview on Fox & Friends the letter will warn China that, “If you don’t shut those wet markets down, our trading relationship is going to change.” He added:
“The source of this virus is the Chinese wet markets. But when you look — have doctors who come on and ask them, how many diseases have come from China through these wet markets where you intermingle all kinds of exotic animals, it’s just really a gross display of how you prepare food, that needs to stop.”
Chinese animal rights activists stage a protest calling for people to refrain from eating cats and dogs.
(CNN)Shenzhen, in southeastern China, has become the first city in the country to ban the consumption of cats and dogs, the government announced Thursday.
Under new rules which will come into effect May 1, the government said it will be illegal to eat animals raised as pets.
In February, following the coronavirus outbreak, China passed a law to ban the consumption of wild animals.
Now Shenzhen will prohibit the consumption of state-protected wild animals and other terrestrial wild animals taken from the wild, as well as captive-bred and farmed terrestrial wild species.
In addition, the consumption of animals raised as pets, such as cats and dogs will also be banned.
Animals that can be consumed include pig, cattle, sheep, donkey, rabbit, chicken, duck, goose, pigeon, quail, as well as aquatic animals who are not banned by other laws or regulations.
“If convicted, they will be subjected to a fine of 30 times of the wild animal’s value, if the animal is above the value of 10,000CNY [$1400 USD],” announced authorities.
The coronavirus outbreak is thought to have started at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and authorities have acknowledged they need to bring the lucrative wildlife industry under control if it is to prevent another outbreak.
However ending the trade will be hard. The cultural roots of China’s use of wild animals run deep, not just for food but also for traditional medicine, clothing, ornaments and even pets.
This isn’t the first time Chinese officials have tried to contain the trade. In 2003, civets — mongoose-type creatures — were banned and culled in large numbers after it was discovered they likely transferred the SARS virus to humans. The selling of snakes was also briefly banned in Guangzhou after the SARS outbreak.
But today dishes using the animals are still eaten in parts of China.
CNN’s Ben Westcott and Shawn Deng and journalist Anna Kam contributed to this report.
There are rumors that the new coronavirus originated in animals sold at Chinese ‘wet markets’ in the city of Wuhan. What are ‘wet markets’ and how likely is it that this is true?
As medical professionals around the world are searching for ways to stop the coronavirus outbreak, greater scrutiny is being cast on the “wet markets” suspected to have played a role in the initial spread of the sickness.
While rumors have swirled that the virus originated in bats and then infected another animal that passed it onto people at a market in the southeastern Chinese city of Wuhan, scientists have not yet determined exactly how the new coronavirus infected people. But these kinds of markets are known to operate in not the most sanitary conditions.
“You’ve got live animals, so there’s feces everywhere. There’s blood because of people chopping them up,” Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, which works to protect wildlife and public health from emerging diseases, told the Associated Press last month.
Residents wearing face masks purchase seafood at a wet market on Jan. 28 in Macau, China. (Getty Images)
“Wet markets,” as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, are places “for the sale of fresh meat, fish, and produce.” They also sell an array of exotic animals.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, before its closure, advertised dozens of species such as giant salamanders, baby crocodiles and raccoon dogs that were often referred to as wildlife, even when they were farmed, according to the Associated Press.
And like many other “wet markets” in Asia and elsewhere, the animals at the Wuhan market lived in close proximity as they were tied up or stacked in cages.
Animals in “wet markets” are often killed on-site to ensure freshness — yet the messy mix raises the odds that a new virus will jump to people handling the animals and start to spread, experts say.
A vendor sells meat to customers at a market in Beijing on Jan. 15. (Getty Images)
“I visited the Tai Po wet market in Hong Kong, and it’s quite obvious why the term ‘wet’ is used,” an NPR reporter wrote about them earlier this year.
“Live fish in open tubs splash water all over the floor. The countertops of the stalls are red with blood as fish are gutted and filleted right in front of the customers’ eyes. Live turtles and crustaceans climb over each other in boxes,” he described. “Melting ice adds to the slush on the floor. There’s lots of water, blood, fish scales and chicken guts. Things are wet.”
COVID-19, like SARS, is a disease that has been traced back to animals. But it’s not the only recent one.
The killing and sale of what is known as bushmeat in Africa is thought to be a source for Ebola. Bird flu likely came from chickens at a market in Hong Kong in 1997. Measles is also believed to have evolved from a virus that infected cattle.
There are signs following the outbreak of the coronavirus that the Chinese government may make more lasting changes to how exotic species are raised and sold. Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the country should “resolutely outlaw and harshly crackdown” on the illegal wildlife trade because of the public health risks it poses.
Before the outbreak began, it was legal in China to sell 54 species of animals, like pangolins and civets — as long as they were raised on farms. But that made it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal wildlife in “wet markets”, and enforcement was lax, Jinfeng Zhou of China Biodiversity, Conservation and Green Development Foundation, an environmental group based in Beijing, told the AP.
All told, officials say about 1.5 million markets and online operators nationwide have been inspected since the coronavirus outbreak began. About 3,700 have been shut down, and around 16,000 breeding sites have been cordoned off.
However, even if China successfully regulates or bans it, the wildlife trade is likely to continue elsewhere.
Recent visits to wet markets on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and in the coastal city of Doula in Cameroon revealed similar conditions to “wet markets” in China, the Associated Press reported. Vendors were slaughtering and grilling bats, dogs, rats, crocodiles and snakes, and sanitary measures were scant.
A company specialising in making dog meat dishes has claimed that eating dogs is a way for Chinese people to show their ‘cultural confidence’.
Fankuai Dog Meat from eastern China made the statement in a blog post while protesting against a proposed law which bans people from consuming pets in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The brand claims that lawmakers in the city of Shenzhen drafted the proposal to appease the West.
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Fankuai Dog Meat, a company based in eastern China, has claimed that eating dogs is a way for Chinese people to show their ‘cultural confidence’. It boycotts a proposal by lawmakers from Shenzhen, which bans the locals from consuming dog meat to improve food safety
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Volunteer veterinarians treat sick and wounded dogs rescued from a truck heading towards the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in an improvised shelter in Guangzhou, China, on June 22
Fankuai produces a wide range of dishes, including hand-shredded dog meat, spicy dog meat and dog meat braised in a turtle broth.
Based in the county of Pei in Jiangsu Province, the firm is named after an ancient Chinese general who allegedly made his living by butchering dogs in his early years.
The company published the strongly worded article last Thursday to condemn the potential policy from Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
The commentary blasted the city’s plan as a ‘denial to thousands of years of Chinese food culture’.
It claimed that relevant officials had stood on the opposite side of the general public and drawn the proposal to appease the West, which is used to ‘bullying’ Chinese culture.
It also said that the proposal represented ‘extreme dog lovers’ and created ‘inharmonious social atmosphere’.
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Fankuai blasted Shenzhen’s plan as a ‘denial to thousands of years of Chinese food culture’ in a now-deleted commentary published last Thursday. Pictured above, a man wearing a face mask carries his pet dog on a street in Jiujiang in China’s central Jiangxi province on March 6
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It then argued that people in various Chinese provinces ‘have a history of eating dogs for two to three thousand years’, therefore the proposal ‘strips people of their freedom of eating dog meat’. Pictured above, a Chinese woman holds her dog that is wearing a protective mask
The firm said it supported Beijing’s new law to ban the eating of wild animals, but criticised the Shenzhen authority for extending the restriction ‘infinitely’ to including ‘livestock’.
It then argued that people in various Chinese provinces ‘have a history of eating dogs for two to three thousand years’, therefore the proposal ‘strips people of their freedom of eating dog meat’.
The article went on to allege that the proposition from Shenzhen protected the interests of ‘extreme dog lovers’.
‘Extreme dog lovers are influenced by the extremist thoughts from the West and appease Western rubbish culture without limit,’ it wrote.
The author concluded its criticism by urging Shenzhen not to pass the law.
The post has been removed from the company’s WeChat account after it had sparked an uproar among Chinese animal activists.
The company has refused an interview request from MailOnline on the matter. One representative cited ‘sensitive topics’ as the reason for the rejection.
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The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is one of the most controversial food festivals in China and sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals. The picture shows butchered dogs at a stall in Yulin on June 21, 2018
Animal activists have demanded the Chinese government prohibit the consumption of dogs for years.
The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is one of the most controversial food festivals in China and sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals.
If this proposal from Shenzhen gets passed, it will be the first of its kind in the country.
Apart from dogs, the proposed act bars snake, frog and turtle meat from the dinner table.
Lawmakers from Shenzhen, a city of around 13 million people, published the proposal on February 25 on its government’s website.
The public had until March 5 to send in their feedback to the document.
Fankuai’s controversial claims came after a Chinese scholar said that the country should ban the eating of dogs and cats completely, not just in Shenzhen, to ‘restore its international image’.
Guo Changgang, an academic from Shanghai, called for Beijing to set up legislation and impose the restriction across the country.
Guo Changgang (pictured), the head of the History Research Centre of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said China should establish a relevant law to protect companion animals
‘The consumption of dog meat and cat meat has never been a social custom that is ‘widely accepted by the people’,’ claimed Mr Guo, the head of the History Research Centre of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
He acknowledged the government’s efforts to crack down on the wildlife trade to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But he hoped that national lawmakers could extend the protection to cover companion animals.
‘Eating wild animals, dog meat and cat meat is one of the important elements that damage China’s international image,’ he wrote on news app Toutiao.
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At least 4,380 people have died and more than 121,800 have contracted the disease globally
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A man wears a mask as he looks at an empty St. Peter’s Square after the Vatican erected a new barricade at the edge of the square on Tuesday. Italy entered its first day under a nationwide lockdown after a government decree extended restrictions on movement to the whole nation
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People wearing masks sit in a subway train in Milan, Italy, on Wednesday. In Italy, the government extended a coronavirus containment order previously limited to the country’s north to the rest of the country beginning Tuesday, with soldiers and police enforcing bans
China’s top legislative committee last month passed new legislation to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals.
Beijing is yet to revise its wild animal protection law, but the passage of the proposal was ‘essential’ and ‘urgent’ in helping the country win its war against the epidemic, wrote state newspaper People’s Daily.
The exact source of the novel coronavirus remains unconfirmed. Scientists speculate that it originated in bats, snakes, pangolins, or some other animal.
In China alone, the health crisis has claimed at least 3,158 lives and infected more than 80,900 people.
And globally, at least 4,380 people have died and more than 121,800 have contracted the disease. More than 100 countries are now trying to contain the contagion.
Experts from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved that humans caught the virus from animals at the Huanan Seafood Wholesales Market.
Coronavirus crisis declared pandemic by World Health Organisation
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Two new types of bird flu infections currently spreading in China could jump to humans threatening global health, scientists warn.
Exposing the Big Game 
