Comprehensively ban on the wildlife trade-in China

An immediate and comprehensive ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals has been declared by the Chinese government on Monday. This practice of trade of wild animals has been believed responsible for the deadly coronavirus outbreak. 

The top legislative committee of the country has approved a proposal that says ‘prohibiting the illegal wildlife trade, abolishing the bad habit of overconsumption of wildlife, and effectively protecting the lives and health of the people’. 

All the bans which had been regulated were put in place, due to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus which had killed thousands of people in China and other parts of the country. But that prohibition was short-lived and the conservationists have accused China of tolerating the cruel trade in the wild animals as exotic menu items or for the use in the traditional medicines whose efficiency is not confirmed by science. 

This decision was sanctioned by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which oversees the country’s rubber-stamp legislature. 

The epidemic coronavirus has highlighted “the prominent problem of excessive consumption of wild animals, and the huge hidden dangers to public health and safety.”

According to Chinese health officials, the virus has likely emerged from a non-veg market in the central city of Wuhan that sold wild animals as food. The coronavirus has killed around 3000 people in China and infected around 77000 other people which have paralyzed the country’s economy. This virus had also infected so many people in other countries. The committee on Monday had decided to postpose years NPC session which was scheduled to begin in early March, which will delay any legal revisions on the wildlife trade. Therefore, the Standing Committee had issued a full ban until the final legislation passed. 

There are already so many laws which had been passed against the wildlife trade, but the conservationists say that these laws are full of loopholes regarding many species and that enforcement is plain lax or episodic. 

China has ordered a temporary ban “until the national epidemic situation is over” this decision was taken by China after this epidemic exploded across the country. But according to the conservationists and virologists, the temporary ban was not enough, they want a permanent prohibition with the tough enforcement.

The Public health experts have warn that transporting, butchering, and consuming wild species poses a significant and growing public health risk to humans by exposing with a dangerous animal-borne pathogen. According to the conservationists China is the single biggest country driving consumption of many threatened species, and that animals are routinely subjected to horrible conditions and cruel treatment. 

The source of coronavirus is still unconfirmed, the scientists variously speculating that it has been originated in bats, pangolins, or some other mammal. It is believed by the scientists that the SARS might be originated from the bats, and later it has been reached to humans via civets.