Shenzhen is currently getting some good international press after becoming the first city in China to ban the consumption of cats and dogs.
In fact, the new regulation is not targeted specifically at cats and dogs but describes which types of animals can be eaten and which can not.
Acceptable animals to eat include livestock, poultry, and types of aquatic animals that are not already prohibited from consumption by existing laws and regulations.
Cats and dogs are not on the list. Neither are more exotic creatures like bats, pangolins, and civets.
Shenzhen’s regulation expands upon China’s nationwide ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals in February following the coronavirus outbreak, which is believed to have begun at a wet market in Wuhan.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market boasted a wide variety of live wildlife, providing a fertile ground for the deadly virus to jump from one species to another, mutating along the way and eventually finding a human host.
Shenzhen’s new law prohibits slaughtering animals in public or at home, effectively banning these types of markets where live wild animals are sold for consumption.
Those wanting to eat meat will have to go to legitimate butchers or grocery stores.
