JUSTICE - No. 65

16 No. 65 JUSTICE across 75 species. 18 These wild animals are often held under horrific, inhumane conditions with live animals next to dead carcasses. Tourists from the West who visited these markets recount horrible tales of unbearable screams of mammals and fowl being grilled alive, and animals making desperate bids to escape by climbing on top of each other and flopping or trying to jump out of their containers. 19 The wildlife markets, found all over Asia and Africa, are usually filthy and unregulated. COVID-19, being a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is classified as a zoonotic viral disease, meaning that the first patients who were infected acquired these viruses directly from animals. The 2002-2004 SARS outbreak that caused the death of thousands of human beings, was traced through the intermediary of Asian palm civets (a nocturnal mammal living in the wild) to cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Yunnan. 20 Such dead and live bats and other bat species were also sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. While scientists have not yet obtained conclusive evidence on the exact source of this latest SARS outbreak, it is likely to have originated from bats, possibly through the intermediary of pangolins. Pangolins are also nocturnal mammals, and they are much used in traditional Chinese medicine in southern China andVietnam because their scales are believed to have medicinal properties. Their meat is also considered a delicacy. The high demand for them has led them to be considered an endangered species. According to the World Health Organization, around 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases that have affected humans over the past three decades originated in animals. 21 It is time for the international community to take more stringent measures to stop the trade in wildlife in general, and in endangered species in particular. Only after the COVID-19 breakout did the Chinese Government issue a temporary ban on trade in wildlife, but it is likely to be lifted as soon as the current pandemic is under control, just like the ban issued after the 2002- 2004 SARS outbreak was rescinded. 22 Unfortunately, there is strong demand for meat of wild and exotic animals, especially among wealthy and influential Chinese businessmen, and the government tends to yield to their pressure. Illegal trade flourishes and enforcement is lax across South Asia and Africa. International wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. 23 Such trade also contributes to habitat destruction, which harms biodiversity and thereby narrows the genetic pool and weakens our resilience against disease. By removing necessary buffer zones between humans and wild fauna, loss of habitat also makes it more likely that animal pathogens will come into contact with people. 24 In an article published by the head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Director-General of WWF, and a senior official of the World Health Organization, they wrote: “We have seen many diseases emerge over the years, such as Zika, Aids, Sars and Ebola, and they all originated from animal populations under conditions 18. Peter J. Li,“First Sars, Now theWuhan Coronavirus. Here's Why China Should Ban its WildlifeTrade Forever,”S OUTH C HINA M ORNING P OST , Jan. 29, 2020, available at https:// www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047828/first- sars-now-wuhan-coronavirus-heres-why-china-should- ban-its 19. This is based on conversations I had with friends who visited such markets. See also Paola Froelich,“Inside the Horrific, Inhumane Animal Markets Behind Pandemics Like Coronavirus,”N.Y. P OST , Jan. 25, 2020, available at https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inside-the-horrific- inhumane-animal-markets-behind-pandemics-like- coronavirus-2020-01-25 20. Robin McKie,“Scientists Trace 2002 SarsVirus to Colony of Cave-dwelling Bats in China,” G UARDIAN , Dec. 10, 2017, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/10/ sars-virus-bats-china-severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome 21. World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, “Zoonotic Disease: Emerging Public Health Threats in the Region.”W ORLD H EALTH O RGANIZATION , available at http://www.emro.who.int/ about-who/rc61/zoonotic-diseases.html 22. See supra note 17. 23. According to information on the official website of the CITES, available at https://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what. php 24. UN Environment Programme, “There Are No Winners in the Illegal Trade in Wildlife: Interview with Ivonne Higuero, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to UNEP.”UN E NVIRONMENT P ROGRAMME (May 5, 2020), available at https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and- stories/story/there-are-no-winners-illegal-trade-wildlife 25. Marco Lambertini, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema & Maria Neira, “The Coronavirus as a Warning for Us to Mend our Broken Relationship with Nature,”G UARDIAN , June 17, 2020, available at https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2020/jun/17/coronavirus-warning-broken- relationship-nature