Hey Sassy Sleuths
Forgive me, but today I’m going
down a dark rabbit hole with today's blog – simply because this subject holds close to my beliefs and
passion and quite frankly I’m f**kng angry.
However I first must explain that
with my former naïve self, I had known about wet markets in the past, yet it
was vague to me what the markets really were, the controversy going on and even
that they were called wet markets!
But with the Corona Virus hitting
the world so drastically and suddenly, wet markets have become a hot topic as they are said to have been the start of where the first human was
infected with Corona. This then caused most of us to google 'what the hell are wet markets?' (And I
don’t blame you. We curious minds wanted answers dammit!)
And for those of you who don’t know
what a wet market is, it’s a market where spices, vegetables, fish and seafood
are sold. It’s also where animals, including dogs, rabbits and cats as well as exotic
animals (pangolins, civets, peacocks etc) and even those near extinction are
kept in tiny cages and sold. Animals are slaughtered alive before selling, and
with the slaughtering of animals comes blood on the (dance) floor – sorry
couldn’t help myself- but yes, anyway, blood on the floor. The blood is then
hosed away with water and thus the name wet
market.
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| A Seafood Market |
Controversially, it can also be termed as an “incubator
for diseases."
Now here’s the thing about me. I AM
AN ANIMAL LOVER! Always have been and always will be. (This means I oppose any sort of ill-treatment, abuse
and unnecessary / sadistic killing of all beautiful creatures and species that
are breathing!)
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| Via Giphy |
BUT we are sleuths and to be a
sleuth we have to be objective in one's analysis and findings.
So let’s dive in a bit deeper and
discover the answer of: Did the Corona
Virus originate at the Wuhan Seafood Wet Market?
I read up a lot concerning this and
the simple answer given by scientists and those working in the labs are, 'we are unsure at this time.'
The reason wet markets came into
play as a prime suspect was because certain species of bats harbour corona
already, and with wet markets, which also sell bats, coupled with the fact that
live and dead animals are so close in proximity to each other and humans, the theory was that the virus
could easily have been transferred from a bat to a human or from a bat to
another animal to a human from that place.
However,
the first person that contracted the corona virus is said to have had no
contact or relation with the Wuhan Seafood Market! Or any wet market.
There were also those who tested
positive early on for Corona and they said they too had never been to a wet
market. On the contrary there were others with Corona that said that they had visited the wet market.
So all in all,we
are not really sure if the virus began at the Wuhan Seafood Wet Market.
*On
an interesting note, two viruses that occurred at different times but within
the last 30 years and have caused multiple deaths are SARS and MERS (also related to corona virus and which
stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome respectively) are thought to have allegedly originated from the wet
markets.
So with all this controversy
surrounding wet markets, the question lingers: Are they legal?
Simple answer – (and a big sigh
from me) they are allowed to operate. They are much like farmers markets and are said to be an essential part of everyday
life. Some people though are raising the question of: can these markets
continue but without the slaughtering and animal abuse?
“The banning of these markets will
be impossible as well as destructive to urban food security in China as they play an
important role for urban residents to access affordable food,” says Dr.
Zhenzhong Si a research associate at the University of Waterloo who studies food security in China.
So it seems that these wet markets,
prevalent in Asian countries, but that also exists in other continents, won’t go
away anytime soon. However a vast number of people around the globe including a number of Asians oppose these markets because of the unhygienic methods used and the ill treatment of
animals.
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| Image via Giphy by Maudit |
Those who do support the killing of
these animals and slaughtering them alive, and this is just my opinion, are
being selfish and heartless with their action. Viewing pictures and videos of wet markets and how the animals are horrendously treated and caged is NOT WORTH
the monetary value they get from selling it. (Would you allow kids to be caged
and sell them or slaughter them alive? Most of you would say no, actually I'm hoping every one of you would say no, so what's the difference with living, breathing, thinking, feeling animals? Both would be defenceless in these cases and both have the ability to experience pain.)
Also with so many animals near
extinction, what will be left to sell at the end of the day??!
I have nothing against the markets selling
meat like cattle and pigs, which if the animals were properly treated and farmed while alive, ‘killed with
kindness’ de-skinned, drained of their blood etc and then
brought to the market and sold, that to me, is a much lesser evil of the two!
But for
animals to be alive, or to be placed next to fresh carcasses of other dead or bleeding animals, is not only a recipe for diseases and sickness towards humans
and other animals, it's also plain down ANIMAL CRUELTY.
Therefore I am ALL FOR the wet
markets to operate but to BAN the system of caging and badly treating /
slaughtering innocent live and freshly dead animals as well as selling exotic
and near extinct animals. Whether for food or medicinal purposes.
Right now almost everyone in the
world is undergoing quarantine and lockdown. On the truly heartbreaking end of
the scale, people are dying in masses everyday while on the other end, as humans
are locked up in ‘cages,’ nature is thriving better than it ever did before we laid
hands on it.
And to get everything back to equilibrium the answer to this is - there
is a middle ground to be met! If we all come to it, we can all do this
together! Have your food and meat if you want it, but take care of animals in
the process. If it’s medicinal remedies you need out of murdering or hurting animals,
there are other, safer, legal methods of acquiring this including herbal, home and
pharmaceutical solutions.
The end result of greed is always
destruction.
(But I guess it's the bigger powers that need to also wave their magic wand...in the right way.)
At the end of the day we need to take care of nature so that
nature can take care of us.
We may never know how the first human contracted the Corona virus and whether it came from the wet market or not. But it has opened our eyes to not only how fragile life is but to how animals are being treated.
Because of the constant news about wet markets after Corona Virus more and more people have become aware and are actively resisting the act of animal abuse at these places.
Therefore if we can take anything away from this dreaded disease, it's that nature is fighting back!
*But more voices need to be heard, knowledge needs to be spread and changes should be made.*
Be good to yourself, cherish all creatures,
be kind, stay home, stay safe!
What are your opinions on the wet market? Please comment, I would love to know!
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