Banning Live animal markets is not that simple

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Sitting down to eat with my students at a restaurant in Shanghai I asked what was nice to eat. They pointed to a plate with meat and vegetables so I piled some of it in my plate. I asked what is it. They said Bull Frog. It is delicious. Is it a special farmed Bull Frog? No they said, you can get it from the garden. I decided to give it a miss.

My students also heralded how delicious snake is. I guess this wasn’t too different from the Snails I ate at Mr and Mrs Bund a renown French restaurant in Shanghai. Frogs are eaten in Europe too; so how different is eating wildlife? Probably not, when the culture is used to eating these things for centuries.

I read somewhere that a women cried barbaric. Aren’t we just as barbaric by eating animals such as cows, chicken, pigs and even fish? It is not uncommon to see lots of varieties of eggs from fowl to chicken to quail to you name it. At least 15 different varieties, I kid you not. I have seen live snakes in shopping centers in fish tanks and fish is fresh, as in alive. Ditto prawns. How is this diet different to people eating insects, or cows testicles? Probably not much different. Different cultures, different practices. Do I eat everything, no I do not. But many people around the world experiment and do try a heck of a lot. Should we ban various eating habits. I guess it is dependent on what people are used to eating.

I wonder if it is really about hygiene. In some markets meat is salted rather than refrigerated. I have also seen the biggest pigs feet I have seen in my life where the pigs have particular practices where they are fattened up to the extreme.

I don’t believe banning particular diets is the answer. I think it has to be a combination of the way meat/chicken etc is ethically killed, the way it is sold, hygiene practices, storage practices, plus limiting any animals/birds/bats/wildlife etc that is found to be detrimental to the health of humans. In Australia for example you can easily find Kangaroo meat in supermarkets while we pat and think kind things about kangaroos, many can see them as pests or very tasty to eat. I have also attached an interesting article:

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/480926-why-preventing-a-viral-outbreak-is-not-as-simple