Residents of the Chinese city of Shenzhen have been warned to desist from consuming cat and dog meat.
The city imposed a ban, which will take effect on May 1, following Chinese authorities’ ban on consumption of wildlife meat.
“Dogs and cats as pets have established a much closer relationship with humans than all other animals, and banning the consumption of dogs and cats and other pets is a common practice in developed countries and in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“This ban also responds to the demand and spirit of human civilisation,” Reuters quoted the Shenzhen city government as saying.
The move was also initiated to curb the spread of zoonotic diseases, after it emerged that a market in Wuhan selling wild animals and wildlife meat could have been the starting point for the outbreak of the new coronavirus, providing the means for the virus to travel from animals to humans.
The BBC quoting the Humane Society International (HSI), says 30 million dogs are killed for meat in Asia, although many China people do not eat the delicacy.
The National Health Commission in China says that there were 81,589 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 3,318 deaths in the country.
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