After a man in Guangdong Province in southeastern China was reported ill with a strain of SARS similar to that found in civet cats, Chinese officials have ordered the closure of wild animal markets and the immediate killing of all captive civet cats in the province.

All civet cats are to be killed "in a few days," said Dr. Zhong Nanshan, China's senior SARS expert. A local official estimated that about 10,000 civet cats will meet their deaths in the cull.

Civet cats are widely eaten in Guangdong Province. The Hong Kong headquartered animal welfare organization 'Animals Asia' says the latest crisis highlights yet again the urgent need to ban China's live animal markets countrywide - once and for all.

After documenting the wild animal markets for nearly 20 years, Animals Asia investigators returned to China's notorious Zhengsha market in November 2003 and found in excess of 60 wild, domestic and endangered species, caged and pouring into the markets on the backs of trucks - stressed, diseased, dying and dead.

Despite new Government regulations many of the animals were clearly wild caught and were packed together in close concentrations of numbers along with thousands of reptiles, mammals, amphibians and birds.

Caged together in close proximity, the animals suffered violent and barbaric methods of slaughter which then allowed blood, gut contents, feces and urine to contaminate the surrounding area - and allowed viruses, previously kept under control by the immune system, to multiply and be excreted.

Animals Asia Media Director Annie Mather said: "Whilst it is clear that many market traders have been selling animals trapped in the wild and ignoring Government regulations to sell 'farmed raised species', it should actually be recognised that farming civet cats and other wild animals does not lessen the risk of disease and that they are potentially at risk of shedding viruses as any animal caught in the wild."

In 2003, a resolution proposed by the Animals Asia Foundation and supported by Hong Kong Legislator and Member of China's National People's Congress, Dr. David Chu Yu Lin, and local animal welfare and conservation groups in Hong Kong urged the Government to ban the trading and consumption of wild animals and dogs and cats, which was then submitted to Beijing's National People's Congress by Dr. Chu.

Supporting the closure of China's wild animal markets, Chen Run Shen, Secretary General of the Government's China Wildlife Conservation Association in Beijing said: "Whilst reform is the first step, in principle I believe that all wild animal markets should be closed in China. The wild animal trade has direct conflict with the progression of a civilized society. It also brings direct harm and damage to the animals themselves."

Following the Guangdong Government decision today to close all markets and kill the civet cats, Animals Asia Founder Jill Robinson MBE appealed to the authorities to euthanise the animals in the most humane way possible and to never again relax the new ban, as they have done in the past.

"We urge China to extend these regulations country wide, to include companion animals such as dogs and cats, and to take the lead in Asia towards ending decades of cruelty and disease," Robinson said.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.

Another detailed article about SARS, the animal markets, Etc.