China appears to be weakening its post-Covid restrictions on the farming of wildlife such as porcupines, civets and bamboo rats, which raises a new risk to public health and biodiversity, warn NGOs and experts. Before the pandemic, wildlife farming was promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich. […]
Tag: wildlife farming
As calls to shutter wildlife markets grow, China struggles with an industry worth billions
Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on China to shut down wet markets where illegal wildlife are sold. Pompeo’s call was echoed by the Australian government, which on the same day urged G20 countries to take action on wildlife markets in order to reduce the risk of new diseases like COVID-19 spilling […]
South Africa Wants to Promote Wildlife Consumption
South Africa is turning towards the implementation of new laws that fully allows the economic exploitation of wildlife. The intention is to market the use of all kinds of wild species, including giraffes, zebras, emu, and duikers, in order to produce cheap meat. However, the current corona virus crisis shows this can be a public […]
Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry
Nearly 20,000 wildlife farms raising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry. Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies […]
South Africa reclassifies 33 wild species as farm animals. A list of iconic and in some cases endangered wild animals can now be manipulated as farming stock.
Lions, cheetahs, rhinos and zebras were among 33 wild species which became farm animals as of May this year when the South African Government approved a brief amendment to the Animal Improvement Act (AIA) which governs livestock breeding.12 There has been virtually no mention of this in the media, as the legislation was slipped through […]