Wild Animals (Vira Mehta)
Fact-Checked Source: WWF, “Why We Must Close High-Risk Wildlife Markets.”
“Why We Must Close High-Risk Wildlife Markets.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, 6 Apr. 2020, www.worldwildlife.org/stories/why-we-must-close-high-risk-wildlife-markets. On April 6, 2020, this article was written to inform readers of the dangers wet markets cause and how many dangerous diseases came from a result of selling and buying animals from wet markets.
Wet Markets
Five Facts Checked:
This was the most important fact to me since it set the basis for the rest of the article and explained where Covid-19 originated from. BBC explained that it began from the selling of animals at wet markets which then spread throughout the country and world.The source of the outbreak is believed to have been a "wet market" in Wuhan, China, that sold live and dead wildlife and domestic animals, along with other foods for human consumption.
This statement was also essential since it claimed that all unregulated wet markets would be shut down, but with further research, the New York Times found one major loophole in this so called "ban", being that all animal trade would still be allowed and supported for medicinal uses.Fortunately, the Chinese government took action after the COVID-19 outbreak to place a ban on wildlife consumption.
The US played a large role in the shut down of non-regulated wet markets, but according to NPR they wanted all wet markets to be shut down - not just the illegal ones.We are calling for urgent action to close high-risk markets and end illegal and unregulated wildlife trade that impacts biodiversity and threatens human health and our existence as we know it.
The United Nations gave a statement about how illegal wildlife trade had drastically increased in the past few decades and they blamed it on the improvements in transport systems which made it easier for trade to occur.Illegal and unregulated wildlife trade is widely known to be a major threat to the conservation of ecosystems, biodiversity, and endangered species
Lastly, this fact was important since the statistics showed high numbers for countries that supported shutting down all wet markets - not just for China, but worldwide. New York Daily Mail explained that many people thought the United Nations should step-in in order to deal with this job, which would prevent further diseases from an animal.93% of respondents in the four regions with active wildlife markets—all locations surveyed except Japan (where there is less trade of wildlife for human consumption)—would support efforts by their governments and health ministries to close all illegal and unregulated markets selling wild animals.
Analytic Essay
How global trades lead to a global pandemic
During a time period where almost everything is in the unknown, it is difficult to focus on anything but the horror of a disease we are faced with. Although we are taking extreme precautions to stay away from Covid-19, it is important to look around and see what else is being affected. I decided to focus on the wild animals and how the trade on wildlife has changed through this global pandemic.
Wild animals play a huge role in society from providing people with luxury clothing items, to food to being an essential part of the ecosystem. With wild animals basically “on-hold” at the moment, trade routes along with urban life have been altered. My perspective source was from the World Wildlife Organization. The WWF has set goals to protect all animals during this crisis and one aspect they focused on was suggesting to close down all animal trade centers (mainly food markets) as they stated places like these “can be a living petri dish” for diseases like the Coronavirus.
The WWF aimed to reach anyone who was affected by Corona and wanted to learn and support preventative measures to further stop the spread of the disease. The article used pathos to connect to the reader during this difficult period and explained the negative outcomes of the wet markets - not only for harboring diseases but for destroying the conservation of the ecosystem as well. They included solid data of how many diseases have originated from wild animals being used in wet markets and added the deaths each one caused, which further allowed them to claim how dangerous the trade system was.
An essential resource they used was a survey they sent to the public which asked people their opinions on the wet markets and whether or not they would continue to support the markets if they knew how many diseases were linked to them. When they received the results, they were able to state that a majority of the population, 93% of the respondents were in favor of shutting down the markets in order to close all illegal and unregulated markets that sold wild animals. This specific fact allowed them to explain and convince the general public why wild animals needed to be protected rather than to be sold and killed.
One major aspect I found interesting in this article was when they stated that all unregulated and illegal wet markets in China would be shut down. Although this seemed like a prominent statement which could end most further spread of diseases, upon further investigation, it was clear that an essential loophole was present. Animal trade would still be supported for uses such as "traditional medicine". Traditional medicine is not as simple as regular medicine in the sense that it is easier to claim a product of animal use as medicine and use it for other means. Reading this, it was clear to me that there needed to be harsher guidelines when wet markets were shutting down.
Overall, this perspective was extremely helpful to me because it fully explained how the trade of animals had begun this disease, and in order to stop potential future diseases, such as Covid-19, we would need to shut down or highly restrict wet markets as a whole.
References
Singh, M. (2020, March 22). Emboldened wild animals venture into locked-down cities worldwide. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/22/animals-cities-coronavirus-lockdowns-deer-raccoons
This was a news article by The Guardian that explained how animals being able to roam freely is affecting them now and how it will affect them in the future. Although I did not end up using this article to support most of my claims, it helped me gain an understanding of the behaviors of animals before and after the virus. This perspective is from the eyes of a new reporter who is explaining how animals are being affected when there are no humans around. From my perspective, the purpose of this article was to explain how wild animals are now thriving in the lack of human interaction, which showed how much damage humans really caused in everyday living. The article shut down the myth of magical creatures showing up in different cities but gave examples of wild animals that are showing up in places they would generally not enter. While they show up on beaches or in urban settings, the author explained that the wild animals may become more bold throughout quarantine and show up in many unwanted areas. I think this was a good source because it gave examples of the animals that are stepping out of their comfort zone and how the quarantine is bringing them to follow new activities, which helped me understand the situation from the perspective of wild animals.
Briggs, H. (2020, April 6). Coronavirus: Putting the spotlight on the global wildlife trade. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52125309
This News piece by the BBC Times basically explained the animal trade situation during Covid-19. I found this perspective to be interesting because it was from someone who has researched the ways trade will be affected due to the virus especially when most of the animals are in high demand.The purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that corona can be spread through animal trade and why it should be stopped. It showed the consequences of trade and how by continuing trade, not only could more animals go extinct, but the virus could be continually spread throughout the routes. Similar to my perspective source, this article focused on the fact that many deadly diseases were formed through animal trade, and although they showed an opposing viewpoint - there is a high demand for many animals - it was easily debated by the fact that high demand of some animal products could in turn destroy wildlife and nature for everyone. This source provided good evidence because it showed a clear pathway of what was/ will be affected if animal products were being traded and the fact that wild animals were the focus of the topic connected to my interest of how these wild animals were being dealt with during covid-19.
Saif, L. J. (2008). Comparative Biology of Animal Coronaviruses: Lessons for SARS. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 84–99. doi: 10.1002/9780470755952.ch12. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15742624
The information presented in this article helped a lot in understanding how diseases itself were spread through animals, specially focusing on SARS. Since I was already accustomed to how wet markets bred nasty diseases such as Covid-19, I wanted to gain more background information on how the spread was actually possible. This piece was written by someone from the Department of Food Animal Health Research Program, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Both history and philosophical analysis were used to support the thesis of explaining how coronavirus infected animals, how it was transmitted and how it affected the animals and humans that it touched. In summary, the article compared the disease in animals versus humans and how the disease was transmitted. It also explained how different strains of the disease were passed along. "Recent data suggest that SARS CoV may also have a broad host range besides humans." This provided insight on how corona actually affected animals once they were infected. It gave an overview to explain the behavioral aspect I was looking into.