Congress Must Act to Protect Wildlife and Public Health
Dear John,
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the world, causing more than 1 million deaths and impacting all our lives. As we navigate our current crisis, we must also work to prevent a future pandemic by altering our destructive relationship with the natural world. The bipartisan "Preventing Future Pandemics Act" (S. 4749/H.R. 8433), introduced by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Fred Upton (R-MI), addresses a major source of this imminent threat.
Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 are transmitted from animals to humans. In the past 40 years alone, there have been a slew of infectious diseases--such as SARS, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, avian flu, swine flu, and Zika--that originated in animals. Live wildlife markets, where a dizzying array of wild species are crammed together alongside humans and often slaughtered on-site, provide the optimal conditions for disease spillover. It is these live markets that are the primary focus of the proposed legislation.
The Preventing Future Pandemics Act prohibits the sale of live wildlife for human consumption within the United States, effectively closing live wildlife markets. The bill also calls on the State Department to form international coalitions and pursue diplomatic measures to encourage closures of live wildlife markets abroad. It dedicates funding to deploy law enforcement officers to countries where there is a flourishing trade in at-risk species, and to help international communities that rely on wildlife consumption transition to alternative food sources.