Coronavirus: China's Shenzhen city to ban eating of dogs, cats, snakes, turtles and frogs to stop spread of virus
The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guandong province is moving to outlaw the consumption of dogs and cats even as the rest of the country considers a blanket ban on all trade and consumption of wild animals, suspected to be the origin of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
In the proposed regulations from the city government, nine types of meat are permitted for consumption -- pork, chicken, beef, rabbit, lamb, donkey, ducks, geese, and pigeon.
"Banning the consumption of wild animals is a common practice in developed countries and is a universal requirement of modern civilization," a notice obtained by Reuters read.
The document recognized dogs and cats' status as pets and banned their consumption, with snakes, turtles, and frogs -- all popular dishes and delicacies in China's south -- excluded from the approved list as well.
The government noted in its draft that there were more than 2,000 species of protected wildlife in China and provided a deadline until February 27 for the public to respond to it. The ban on eating dog and cat meat in Shenzhen, one of the country's technology hubs, would be "extremely welcome," said Peter Li, the Chinese policy expert for animal welfare group Humane Society International.
"Although the trade in Shenzhen is fairly small compared with the rest of [Guangdong] province, Shenzhen is still a huge city and is larger than Wuhan, so this would be very significant and could even have a domino effect with other cities following," he shared.
He pointed out that restrictions on moving dogs across provincial borders for the last two months had meant that, in Yulin, a city in the neighboring province of Guangxi famous for its dog meat festival, most dog slaughter operations had been shut down.
Scientists are currently of the suspicion that the virus passed to humans from animals, with some of the earliest infections found in people who had exposure to a wildlife market in Hubei's provincial capital Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where bats, snakes, civets, and other animals were sold.
Shenzhen's recent proposal comes at the heels of a central government proposing a complete ban on "the eating of wild animals and crackdown on illegal wildlife trade" to the Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on February 23.
The report said the measure was aimed at "safeguarding public health and ecological security" and that its passage was "essential" and "urgent" in helping China win the war against the epidemic. However, because the NPC has already postponed its annual session due to the outbreak, it is unclear when the proposal will be heard.
The COVID-19 virus has infected more than 83,000 people across the globe and claimed more than 2,800 lives so far.