PETITION TARGETS: NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, NY Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, NY Assembly Majority Leader Carl Heastie
UPDATE: New York has officially introduced Bill A10399, “an act to to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to prohibiting the operation of establishments where animals and/or fowls are slaughtered and butchered for food.” Sign to urge leaders to pass this important legislation and immediately shut down all live animal markets in the state.
New York state should lead the world by example. How? By immediately closing down and permanently banning all cruel and dangerous live animal markets.
New York is the epicenter for the global COVID-19 pandemic, and just like the wet markets in China that gave birth to the crisis, more than 80 dangerous live animal markets are operating today in New York City alone, despite the New York State of Pause Executive Order.
Soaked wet with blood, guts, feces, and other bodily fluids and parts, these markets are ideal environments for the incubation and spreading of zoonotic diseases, as a mix of animals are jam-packed into tight cages awaiting slaughter.
NYC is particularly susceptible to a new, even more uncontainable virus spreading through its population of over 8 million people, as all residents live in relatively close quarters. As live animal wet markets remain open, public health and safety are at risk. In addition to the current uncontained COVID virus, new variants of COVID could emerge, reinfecting humans and causing a global viral pandemic relapse. Such introductions could be more deadly, and plague even more people globally.
The facts are clear: live animal markets — whether in Wuhan, China or on the streets of New York — are breeding grounds for deadly zoonotic diseases that then become communicable human-to-human viruses. The government must immediately shut them all down in the interest of public health and safety.
Sign this petition urging lawmakers to do everything in their power to shut down all live animal markets in the state of New York.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PETITION TEXT
