Sens. Graham and Booker’s Call to Shut Down Live-Animal Markets Wins PETA Praise

‘Enough Is Enough’ Puzzle Presents Sent as Thanks for Push to Stop Deadly Animal-Borne Diseases at the Source

For Immediate Release:
April 13, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

A customized jigsaw puzzle that spells out the link between deadly pandemics and killing animals for food is on its way from PETA to Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) along with a letter thanking them for leading the bipartisan congressional move to shut down live-animal markets worldwide.

Sixty legislators signed onto a letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) just days after PETA petitioned WHO to ban the markets and presented the organization with more than 120,000 signatures—pointing out that markets where stressed and sick animals are caged in public areas are breeding grounds for deadly diseases.

“From swine flu and Ebola to bird flu and COVID-19, the public health risks associated with the capture and confinement of animals for food are overwhelming,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, former chief of Zoonotic Disease Control for the D.C. Commission on Public Health. “PETA is pleased to have Senators Booker and Graham calling for these filthy animal markets to be shut down.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases in humans began in animals: SARS, which originated in bats, claimed 774 lives. Swine flu (or H1N1)—which originated in pigs—killed as many as 575,400 people. And at present, the COVID-19 death toll is over 100,000.

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.

PETA’s letter is available upon request.

Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and provides the public with information on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.