Letter: Close live animal food markets

Monday, Feb. 23, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

After years of ignoring the issue, the U.S. government acted with remarkable swiftness to ban the slaughter of "downed" (i.e., too sick or to crippled to walk) cattle for human consumption, following the discovery of a single animal with "mad cow" disease.

In light of the recent SARS epidemic, and the even more threatening avian flu now raging through Asia, would it not be prudent to shut down the many live animal food markets in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, Chicago and elsewhere in the States?

Conditions in these markets are similar to those in China and Vietnam: animals crammed cheek-to-jowl with humans, often in highly unsanitary conditions, coupled with unimaginable cruelty. Many of the animals are diseased, parasitized, dead or dying. This seems a public health disaster in the making, but a preventable one.

Though there has been little mention in the media, the potential risk for wild ducks, geese and other birds, and avian pets such as parrots and parakeets, would also seem considerable, not to mention bird collections at zoos and sanctuaries.

Let's close down the live animal food markets now, for the health and well-being of us all, human and nonhuman alike, before it's too late.

ERIC MILLS Oakland, Calif.

Editor's note: Eric Mills is coordinator of Action for Animals, a San Francisco Bay area organization formed in 1982 that lobbies government on behalf of animals and publishes a newsletter circulated to numerous organizations and individuals.