After years of pressure from animal rights activists, Indonesia’s notorious wildlife market, also known for its brutal slaughter methods, has stopped selling cat and dog meat. The last six traders at the Tomohon Market, located on the island of Sulawesi and known as the Tomohon Extreme Market, signed an agreement on Friday.
In addition, the mayor has issued an immediate sales ban, according to the international animal rights organization HSI. In addition to cat and dog meat, bats, rats, snakes and monkeys were also sold on this market. The animals were brutally beaten, hanged or skinned alive.
Since the start of the corona pandemic, which is believed to have originated in an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, pressure has increased on this market to at least end the trade in cat and dog meat.
Dog and cat meat “traditional” food
Indonesia is one of the few countries in the world that allows the sale of dog and cat meat for traditional reasons. In Sulawesi alone, an estimated 130,000 young animals are slaughtered annually. The Tomohon Extreme Market is the first market in the Southeast Asian country to bow to activist pressure.
Elvianus Pongoh, who has been selling dog meat in the market for 25 years, said the time was right: “I probably slaughtered thousands of dogs. Sometimes I saw the fear in their eyes when I picked them up. Then I felt bad.”
Source: Krone
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