VIDEO: Filmmaker Jack Harries Shows Reality of ‘Wet Markets’
Filmmaker Jack Harries joins forces with PETA in a brand-new video, discussing how disease-ridden “wet markets” and factory farms breed global pandemics like COVID-19 – and why they need to be shut down immediately.
The video includes footage of living and dead animals, including bats, rats, and frogs, at wet markets in Asia. Terrified animals are confined to small cages, and floors and countertops are smeared with faeces, blood, and urine. This footage was taken in April 2020 – a month after the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic. Jack explains the link between animal exploitation and deadly diseases:
“Today, three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals, mainly via the wildlife trade or factory farming. Unless we stop exploiting animals – and soon – there will be more pandemics to come.”
Enough Is Enough
Experts say that the COVID-19 outbreak originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China, where humans had direct contact with live animals and dead animal flesh.
Despite a growing death toll, calls by world leaders for a ban on such markets, and the continued importance of flattening the curve, these markets are still conducting business as usual.
To prevent more diseases like COVID-19, all live-animal markets must close. Join PETA in urging the World Health Organization to call for an end to live-animal meat markets:
The exploitation and slaughter of living, feeling beings has led millions of us to be infected with a dangerous disease – and it’s not the first time something like this has happened.
According to Public Health England, “Many (60 to 80% [of]) emerging infections are derived from an animal source.” Filthy factory farms, abattoirs, and meat markets threaten the health of every human being on the planet by providing a breeding ground for deadly pathogens like the ones behind COVID-19, SARS, bird flu, and more.
Will the Next Pandemic Come From a UK Farm?
On farms in the UK, stressed animals are crammed into cages or sheds by the thousands and pumped full of antibiotics to keep them alive in filthy conditions that would otherwise kill them. Pathogens flourish in such environments.
We’re playing a dangerous game. Given the huge population of animals living on factory farms in the UK and around the world, we’re leaving ourselves vulnerable to further catastrophic disease outbreaks and pandemics.
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And in part because of the widespread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, experts believe that by 2050, more people will die of antibiotic-resistant diseases than of cancer.
What You Can Do
Not only is our mistreatment of animals responsible for deadly pandemics and putting human lives at risk, it also causes other animals immense suffering and is destroying the planet. Now is the time for each and every person to take responsibility for their part.
