PETA Urges Closures in Order to Cut Off Animal-Borne Diseases at the Source
For Immediate Release:
April 20, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
New York – As local lawmakers are calling for a statewide ban on live-animal markets (or “wet markets”), PETA supporters and members of Slaughter Free NYC, NYCLASS, Their Turn, and other animal rights groups will hold simultaneous protests outside several of the city’s 80 such markets on Tuesday, while observing social-distancing practices. The protests will come just days after actor Edie Falco sent an urgent letter calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to shut down live-animal markets, many of which are near schools and private homes and all of which can serve as breeding grounds for deadly zoonotic diseases.
When: Tuesday, April 21, 12 noon
Where: La Granja Live Poultry, 1355 Amsterdam Ave., New York
Macca Vivero Live Poultry, 605 Morris Park Ave., The Bronx
Astoria Live Poultry, 3137 20th Ave., Astoria
Flushing Live Poultry, 131-57 Fowler Ave., Flushing
T & S Live Poultry, 622 Classon Ave., Brooklyn
Aljazeera Live Poultry, 141 34th St., Brooklyn
“When sick and stressed animals are crowded together in filthy meat markets, it’s a matter of when—not if—the next pandemic will occur,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on New York City to help protect all sentient beings, human or not, by closing down these dangerous operations.”
The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a wet market in China, where live and dead animals were sold for food. At these markets, cages are stacked on top of each other, with the animals on the bottom soaked in excrement, pus, and blood—allowing viruses to spread to humans. Wet markets continue to operate throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the U.S.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
