China has closed their wildlife markets in response to COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped criminals, and their customers, from continuing to trade online!
Add your name if you want to put an end to this horrible industry once and for all!
"China's top e-commerce and express delivery operators are under pressure from the government and wildlife activists to become de facto enforcers of the country's temporary ban on the trade in wildlife.
"The ban was imposed in late January as cases of COVID-19 surged in Wuhan, where the now global pandemic was suspected to have originated in the wildlife trade or from animals trafficked into the country from abroad," report Al Jazeera.
The virus may have originated in bats, and was then transferred to a scaly mammal called a pangolin, while the animals were kept in close proximity in a wildlife market. From there, it was transferred to humans, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The scope of the problem is staggering, but shutting down online wildlife market venues has already proven effective.
"In the first month of the ban, e-commerce platforms aided in the removal, deletion or blocking of information relating to 140,000 wildlife products from bush meat to animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicine, and closed down about 17,000 accounts associated with the trade, an official from China's State Council said in late February," according to the same source.
But this is totally voluntary on the part of e-commerce businesses.
"Right now, there isn't enough regulation specifying the responsibility of online platforms.
"If they don't play their role and are not able to step up their monitoring mechanisms, stopping online wildlife trade will be difficult," said Zhou Jinfeng, head of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
That's why we're calling on the Chinese government to do the right thing and enact a ban on the online trade of wildlife.
Don't you want to protect countless defenseless animals from being trafficked online for profit?
Then add your name to ask Zhong Shan, Chinese Minister of Commerece, to take immediate action to introduce legislation in China that would put an end to the online trade of wildlife once and for all!
