WUHAN BANS CONSUMPTION AND SALE OF WILD ANIMALS FOR FIVE YEARS
Today, experts in Wuhan, China reported the authorization of a total restriction on the hunting, trade, sale, and consumption of wild animals within city limits for a time of five years.
The COVID-19 flare-up is thought to have started in Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan—a “wet” animal market where wild animals, and more traditional “livestock” animals, are butchered side-by-side for food.
The new coronavirus is thought to have been transmitted to people by either bats, civets, or pangolins. It is not official if the Wuhan boycott will be stretched out past the expressed five-year timespan.
“It is prohibited to artificially breed terrestrial wild animals and rare and endangered aquatic wild animals under national key protection for the purpose of eating,” a notice on the Wuhan government website reads.
The notice points out that officials will “actively carry out wildlife protection and public health safety publicity and education, eliminate the abuse of wild animals, promote a civilised and healthy, green and environmentally friendly lifestyle, and create a good atmosphere for people and nature to live in harmony.”
The new ban applies to the hunting of wild animals as well, declaring “the administrative area of the whole city is a wildlife sanctuary,” with the exception of killing wild animals for “scientific research, population regulation, monitoring of epidemic diseases, and other special circumstances.”
While China gave a prohibition on the wildlife exchange—a $74 billion industry—countrywide in February, singular urban communities have made a move to actualize their own enforceable enactment.
Besides Wuhan, three urban areas in China—specifically Beijing, Shenzhen, Zhuhai—gave comparative bans on the utilization of certain animals, including certain wildlife, dogs, and cats, lately.