COVID-19 – World Animal Protection's Response

In these uncertain times, most of us are self-isolating and practicing social distancing for the good of others. As we pass the time in our homes, it's natural to question how we got to this point and where we’re going to go from here.

Coronavirus and the Wildlife Trade

Officials suspect the virus originated in bats and likely passed to pangolins where it then transmitted to people in a wet market in Wuhan, China. World Animal Protection has been fighting against the trade in wild animals for years. In 2018 we chronicled the poaching of pangolins for their scales in our report "Suffering at Scale." We also revealed eyewitness footage of the brutal hunting of terrified pangolins, and if you haven't yet watched the footage, please take a moment to do so, but be warned it is upsetting.

Pangolin scales are used in traditional Asian medicine as well as in jewelry and decorations, and their illegal trafficking has earned them the unfortunate reputation as "the most poached mammal in the world." Since the outbreak of COVID-19, however, pangolin sales have reportedly plunged as consumers worry about contracting the disease. Hopefully, their current unpopularity provides some much-needed relief to this endangered animal. 

A Step Toward Change 

Since day one of the Coronavirus outbreak, World Animal Protection's office in China has been working to educate the public about how the mistreatment of animals has consequences far beyond their individual suffering. As the virus spread, we established a Coronavirus Task Force comprising of researchers, scientists, and external affairs teams around the world. They quickly set to work attempting to expand and extend temporary protections for animals, to include the issues we campaign on—animals used in traditional medicine, entertainment, and wildlife sold as exotic pets. 

Temporary relief is not enough, however. As the head of our external engagement department told Yahoo News this week, we need to see a permanent ban on the trade in all wildlife, for traditional medicine, entertainment, exotic pets. 

Our China team is once again ahead of the curve. This week it announced that the first Chinese e-commerce corporate, "Youzan Technologies Co. Ltd", had committed to permanently remove the sale of live wild animals traded as pets and products. In this uncertain new world, we're again calling on UPS to end the trade and shipping of wild animals around the country. 

Wildlife, Not Pets

Every year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals are captured from the wild or bred in captivity to become part of the exotic pet industry, and thousands die before they even reach people's homes.  Aside from the obvious tragic fate that befalls small mammals and reptiles used as exotic pets, these animals are known vectors of zoonotic diseases and carry bacteria like Salmonella which are harmful to humans. The wildlife trade is driven by money, but it does not care to examine the devastation it wreaks across the world.  The most current example of this is COVID-19 that we are all enduring which is destroying the global economy and greatly disrupting our lives. Governments worldwide have an economic as well as a moral imperative to treat animals better and save human and animal lives.

Wild animals need to stay in the wild where they belong—in their natural habitats.