‘The sheer cruelty and the fear in the animals’ eyes was paralysing’

It’s not just the smell of burning hair that lingers in your clothes for days, or the anguish of looking into the eyes of an animal condemned to death. Nor even the sight of gentle birds that should be flying free but are instead caged and desperately thirsty. No, what may get to you deep down is the sense of utter helplessness in the face of the mass suffering, and knowing the trauma of simply being there will never leave you.

Street markets around the world where live animals are taken to be sold, and often butchered on the spot, are invariably chaotic affairs, filled with the sight, sound and stench of death – alongside the casual chatter of traders and shoppers. As they amble by, most foreign tourists turn the other way. But there are a few brave people who, with a good idea of what they will face, actively seek out these places to tell the rest of the world about the horror in its full, bloody detail.

The eruption of a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people is making these accounts more relevant and vivid than ever. Open-air animal marketplaces, from South America to Africa and Asia, are now considered the major risk factor in the emergence of deadly viruses – and it’s not hard to see why.

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When Rebecca Regnery visited markets in Korea and India, what struck her most was the state the animals were in. “They are crammed together in small cages stacked on top of each other,” she says. “The markets are incredibly noisy and busy, and the animals are always very obviously stressed. They look dirty and sickly. There is faeces everywhere. Different species are mixed together.

“I remember the first time I saw the markets thinking, ‘those poor animals, they are obviously so distressed. How can people treat them this way and think it is normal?’”

Regnery, who is senior director for wildlife at Humane Society International, visited markets while abroad for work reasons and went out of curiosity. “The vendors know that tourists don’t like it, so I always pretended to be curious and not disgusted. But it was heartbreaking to see so many animals in such poor conditions and suffering.”

Shoppers could buy animals either as pets or food. “Some animals – dogs, cats, parakeets – were clearly being sold as pets, and some for food, like pigeons, wild turkeys and fish. But lots could easily be for either, such as rabbits, turtles and vultures,” she says.

Even more concerning is the sale elsewhere of much larger animals, including deer and our primate cousins. Jan Creamer, who has visited markets in Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Philippines and Vietnam, recalls: “We found all kinds of species stacked together – reptiles, birds, primates, antelope. Domestic and wild species are all just products. “In the DRC, everything was for sale – insects, fish, crocodiles, antelope, monkeys, baboons. We saw dead pangolins and baboons and nearby live monkeys were tied up. It was like wildlife strip mining. Some of the photos and video are too horrific to show.

“In the Philippines, live and dead animals were again all in the same market: reptiles, civets, monkeys, all packed together with chickens, turkeys, geese, rabbits and others.”

While there are no reports of primates being slaughtered in the street, many market visitors have seen them chained up, ready to meet unknown fates. In Bolivia, Regnery even saw dried llama foetuses being sold at a “witch market” – so called because people there believe the foetuses ward off bad spirits.

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And she worries about the effect of the trade on wildlife populations. “In Latin America, the markets I visited were selling wildlife as pets – lots of birds, some monkeys, lizards. Shockingly, most were most likely to have been captured from the wild.”

The smell of these markets is a recurring theme of witness accounts, such as Creamer’s. “I can only describe these markets as horrific places,” she says, “full of the stench of death and fear as live animals are crushed together in small areas, near stalls of dead animals.”

As president and co-founder of Animal Defenders International, she was also appalled by the fear and stress of the creatures still alive: “The markets we saw were selling dead animal parts for food and live animals, caged or chained, all packed together in the same small areas. The living animals were afraid – and under huge stress.”

Jason Baker agrees that the smell hits you first. “It’s a mix of rotting animal flesh and blood, along with animal waste and often dirty stagnant water,” he says. Having been to live markets in Asia every year since 2000, he saw one in Guangzhou before Sars broke out in 2003, and says the markets now linked to the novel coronavirus are no different.

“Animals are packed together like the tins of soup or boxes of cereal at the supermarket. They can be in China, Indonesia or Vietnam, and each market is widely different – but they all treat animals the same: like merchandise. I’ve often seen animals tied up and piled one on top of the next in buckets. Sometimes it’s like being in a pet shop with dogs, cats, and rabbits, until I notice that they’re for sale right next to chickens, ducks, piglets, lizards, civets, turtles, and all sorts of sea life.”

He even sees species he can’t identify but says he recognises their suffering all the same. “Knowing that the dogs in the markets are no different from the one curled up on your bed gives you a feeling of helplessness.”

Baker, senior vice-president of Peta Asia, was also struck by “the gentle birds who are treated like sacks of potatoes”. They receive no care, he says, even though they are desperately thirsty or may have broken wings. “This is little different from the factory farms that I’ve visited – both are heartbreaking. Your only consolation is hoping the videos you take get people to make the connection and stop eating animals.”

The Yulin dog and cat meat festival in China is infamous in the West but the cruelty is just as bad in Indonesia, according to those who have seen it. Actor Peter Egan earned fame in comic television roles, but he couldn’t be more serious than when talking about what he saw last year at two of Indonesia’s hundreds of live markets. At Tomohon’s notorious “extreme market” dogs and cats were being “sold and butchered in front of their terrified and blood-splattered” cage mates. “I had been warned about the conditions at markets in North Sulawesi, but nothing could have prepared me for the sickening horrors I witnessed,” he says.

“This part of Indonesia is world-renowned for its breathtaking volcanic mountain landscape, stunning dive waters and beautiful beaches, but the ugly brutality of the dog and cat meat trades will haunt me for the rest of my life.

“The absolute indifference to animal suffering was utterly shocking and heartbreaking. I saw countless dogs and cats waiting to be slaughtered, to lose their lives in the most brutal and cruel way. There was nothing I could do to take away their pain, but their pleading eyes and the stomach-churning smell of blood and burning dog hair are scenes of hell that I shall never forget.”

The Dog Meat Free Indonesia (DMFI) campaign group, which works with authorities to end the cruel practices, says only 7 per cent of the population ever eats the meat but it is a widespread health threat. Katherine Polak and a colleague from Four Paws, a DMFI member, both fell seriously sick with a respiratory disease after spending two days there documenting the horror, and with black humour guessed their illness was rabies from the constant exposure to animal tissue. “I remember really well it was like swallowing glass,” she recalls.

Polak describes the markets in North Sulawesi province as “harrowing to say the least”. Pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats were being bludgeoned. “There were rats on skewers being grilled, and bats. Reptiles were being grilled and chopped up. And large Komodo-dragon-type lizards. There was no indication anything in that market was left alive.”

Size makes no difference: she saw birds being killed and small monkeys or chimps held in cages. “It’s like a normal fruit and veg market, then you turn down an alley and there’s the stench and the howling of the dogs being slaughtered. They stack the cages of dogs waiting to be butchered on top of each other – it was vile. And they’d butcher reptiles and poultry and birds and stack them up, and they’d leak blood and faeces on to the dog cages below.

“Right in front of these cages they set dogs and cats on fire, as people walked by including children sucking on lollipops. They’d take dogs and cats out one by one, bash them on the head once or twice. A lot of the dogs would bust their teeth biting the catch pole they grab them with. They’d smack them over the head once or twice with a stick but that’s not enough. Then the animals would have seizures, especially the cats.

“It was sadistic, the brutality of it all. There were up to 50 people standing watching as a cat was convulsing, having seizures, semi-conscious. Then they would blowtorch them to death.”

Dead cats and rats were laid out on tables beside a cage of live cats, while living dogs and cats watched their companions being beaten and burnt to death. In the car park were lorries with cages of yet more dogs waiting to be brought in. Four Paws estimates a million dogs and hundreds of thousands of cats are killed for Indonesia’s meat trade every year, and many thousand more in Cambodia and Vietnam.

“It was 360 degrees of horror because you turn one way and see primates, you turn another way and see cats being clubbed on the head, you turn another way and you see dogs being set on fire. It was shocking to see the gross brutality, and people pointing out the animal they wanted in a cage while dogs were shrieking as they were set on fire alive. Children were desensitised to it all.”

When it all got too much for Polak, she went to the butchering area, the destination for pig carcasses that were tied to the back of motorbikes, dripping blood, and driven there through the alleyways. “At least everything was already dead there. The butchering of pigs was in a tiled area. There was blood everywhere, nobody used gloves that I saw so it was unhygienic.”

At one point the traders got word investigators were around so they hid the dogs under tarpaulin – but it didn’t last.

Polak was left with “the stench of hair being burned, blood and faeces, which stays for days in your clothing and your hair”.

Inevitably, the experience had an emotional legacy, too. “You try to be stoic about it but it’s overwhelming. My colleague almost had a panic attack in the car park. But I went in to see the sheer cruelty and the fear in the animals’ eyes was paralysing.

“More than anything I felt anger. You’re angry at the situation, you’re angry at the people involved in the trade, but you’re also angry at people actively selecting the animals. I’ve seen a lot of horrible things in Vietnam and Cambodia but there was something about how this was done – it was by far the worst animal cruelty situation I’d experienced.”

It wasn’t until Polak had to fly to London weeks later to give a presentation on the trade that the toll on her became clear. “I just broke down in tears sobbing. It wasn’t until then that I had time to process it, and having to replay the footage, I just lost it.”

Levels of sympathy for those involved in trading live animals are mixed. For all the cruelty, Regnery says she can’t help but feel bad for traders, who are evidently poor, trying to feed their families, and at risk of catching disease. However, Polak points out that dog and cat meat is expensive, eaten for celebrations, and not out of poverty. “But what really gets me is the foreigners who say this is cultural, so won’t say anything. But if this was in your own country you’d call the police. This is wrong no matter where it is – no animal deserves this, and it’s a public health risk.

“Yes, these aren’t highly skilled people but that’s not an excuse any more than in the sex trade or drug trade. With child trafficking nobody says, ‘they’re not trained to do anything else’.”

In response to what she saw, Regnery started a campaign called Don’t Buy Wild to encourage people to avoid the abuse of wild animals, particularly in view of emerging diseases. At first she wanted to buy and release all the animals, but knew they were sick and would probably die. “Also the sellers would just replace them with more animals so it wouldn’t really help. What would really help is to have laws against it and/or demand reduction so no one wants to buy them.

But she warns against a blanket ban on all “wet markets” – because they have stalls selling foods including fruit and veg, nuts, beans and spices. “People who say wet markets are good because shoppers there might not have fridges or access to cheap food are absolutely right,” she says. “Unfortunately, there is often a section for wild animals. That’s what must be stopped to prevent future pandemics. Viruses don’t distinguish between animals that are protected or common or animals that were caught in the wild or bred in captivity. And nor should we.”

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Links between eating animals and the emergence of viruses and “superbugs” have occupied Baker for more than a decade. “Today, the new coronavirus is being linked to trafficking of pangolins and bats for food and so-called medicine, but this is nothing new – outbreaks of Sars, bird flu, E.coli, and swine flu and the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have all been linked to the consumption of factory-farmed or wild-caught animals. We must stop acting surprised each time this occurs, and leave animals alone. Right now, China is the hot topic, but the reality is that the next pandemic may start elsewhere in Asia even before this one ends.”

Creamer explains how live animal markets pose a twin risk: the stress of being trafficked and traded reduces animals’ immune systems; and mixing wild and captive-bred species helps pathogens emerge. “The international trade and these wildlife markets are breaching the planet’s natural barriers between species – animals which would not normally have any contact in the wild are forced into close proximity. Species-specific diseases are then pushed across the species barrier and mutate to survive in a new host, creating new disease.”

Polak and colleagues, meanwhile, are supporting some traders to seek out alternative livelihoods. “We don’t give them money directly but might fund opportunities for them such as land. We work in regions where the government is willing to provide some transition support.”

Dog Meat Free Indonesia this month wrote an open letter to President Joko Widodo warning of the “potential national and global health catastrophe” if the government continues to allow the markets to continue “in blatant disregard” for laws and regulations on disease control. “The squalid conditions of the markets into which thousands of wild-caught animals, dogs and cats, all from various sources and of unknown disease status, are illegally trafficked every day, provide almost identical environments to those from which Covid-19 emerged,” the letter warned.

“Trades that affect national and international welfare and stability can no longer be ignored or defended as personal choice or culture. Now is a critical time for countries around the world to review and reconsider their existing policies pertaining to the source production/capture, sale, and slaughter of all animal species destined for human consumption, including dogs, cats and wildlife.”

Regnery sums up the view of many: “You’d think that after Sars and Mers countries would have stopped this. If they don’t care about the animals, surely they care about the people? But apparently not. How many animals have to suffer and people have to die before they stop this?”