Corona Virus: Shenzhen is the first Chinese city to ban eating
cats and dogs
Shenzhen has become the first Chinese city to ban the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat.
This comes after the outbreak of the Corona virus was associated with the meat of wild animals, which prompted the Chinese authorities to ban the trade and consumption of these animals.
Shenzhen went one step further, extending the ban to dogs and cats.
The new law will enter into force on May 1.
The International Humane Society said that 30 million dogs are killed every year across Asia for meat.
However, dog meat is not common in China, the majority of Chinese people have never done so, and say they do not want it.
"Dogs and cats as pets have established a closer relationship with humans than all other animals, and banning the consumption of dogs, cats and other pets is a common practice in developed countries and in Hong Kong and Taiwan," the Shenzhen government said.
"This ban also responds to the demand and the spirit of human civilization."
The International Humane Society praised the move.
"This could be a watershed moment in the efforts to end this brutal trade that kills an estimated 10 million dogs and 4 million cats in China every year," said Dr. Peter Lee, a Chinese policy specialist for the association.
But at the same time as this decision was made, China agreed to use bears bitterness to treat patients with the Coronavirus.
Bitter bitterness - a digestive fluid that comes out of bears - has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The active ingredient, orthodoxylic acid, is used to dissolve gallstones and treat liver disease.
However, there is no evidence that it is effective against coronavirus, while the process is painful and catastrophic for animals.
"Wild animal products such as the bitterness of bears should not be relied upon as a solution to combat a deadly virus that appears to have originated from these animals," Brian Daly, a spokesman for the Asia Animal Foundation, told AFP.
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Wild animal market
In February, the Chinese authorities banned the trade and consumption of wild animals.
The move came after it became clear that a market in Wuhan for the sale of wild animals and their meat could be the starting point for a new Corona virus outbreak, providing the means for the virus to be transmitted from animals to humans.
This news prompted the Chinese government to crack down on trade and markets that sold such products.
To date, there have been nearly a million cases of coronavirus around the world, and more than 47,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In China only, there are 81,589 registered cases and 3,318 deaths, according to the National Health Committee there.
Scientists and researchers are still far from knowing the source of the virus and how it can be transmitted to humans.
