Report: China's Wet Markets Are Still Selling Bats, Dogs And Cats

Half the world is sheltering in place, yet thousands of Chinese flock back to the country's wet markets to eat bats, cats, dogs, and scorpions.

What in the world is wrong with that picture?

Tucker Carlson hammers down:https://t.co/KCrBT3SS65 pic.twitter.com/35PKNKoVLq

— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) March 31, 2020

Chinese wet markets, where all sorts of unusual animals — from bats to cats to scorpions — are sold to consumers as food, have long been considered a breeding ground for exotic viruses. Despite the fact that such markets were considered ground zero for the novel coronavirus outbreak, reports emerged over the weekend that wet markets have been reopened in major cities across China.

“Well, we still don’t know where the coronavirus came from originally in Wuhan, and anyone who tells you we are certain of that is lying to you,” Carlson said. “But many people believe it could have originated in the wet market in Wuhan. That’s a place where consumers buy the meat of wild animals to eat including bats. Wild animal wet markets have long been recognized as a major pandemic threat. As coronavirus spread, China announced it would crack down on them, obviously, but it looks like the crackdown didn’t last long. According to Daily Mail, across China, wet markets are reopening and selling the same animals that they did before.”

The Fox News host listed two major cities, one where “dogs and cats are both for sale as food” and another with “a stand selling traditional Chinese medicines advertises things like lizards, scorpions, and, yes, bats.”

"The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus. The only difference is that security guards try to stop anyone taking pictures which would never have happened before." https://t.co/zOCRFntiCh

— Mike (@Doranimated) March 31, 2020

Terrified dogs and cats crammed into rusty cages. Bats and scorpions offered for sale as traditional medicine. Rabbits and ducks slaughtered and skinned side by side on a stone floor covered with blood, filth, and animal remains.

Those were the deeply troubling scenes yesterday as China celebrated its 'victory' over the coronavirus by reopening squalid meat markets of the type that started the pandemic three months ago, with no apparent attempt to raise hygiene standards to prevent a future outbreak.

As the pandemic that began in Wuhan forced countries worldwide to go into lockdown, a Mail on Sunday correspondent yesterday watched as thousands of customers flocked to a sprawling indoor market in Guilin, south-west China.

Here cages of different species were piled on top of each other. In another meat market in Dongguan, southern China, another correspondent photographed a medicine seller returning to business on Thursday with a billboard advertising bats – thought to be the cause of the initial Wuhan outbreak – along with scorpions and other creatures.

[...] The market in Guilin was packed with shoppers yesterday, with fresh dog and cat meat on offer, a traditional 'warming' winter dish.