A popular market in Indonesia banned the sale of dog and cat meat on Friday, in an unprecedented move, according to the animal rights group, which has been denouncing cruel slaughter practices for years.
Before the ban was introduced, Sulawesi’s Tomohon market was known for its extreme offering, which included meat from dogs and cats, as well as bats, rats, snakes or monkeys.
On Friday, the six remaining dog and cat meat vendors signed an agreement to end sales, and the mayor of Tomohon passed a law banning the sale of these products at the market, animal rights association Humane Society International (HSI) said.
The association’s statement highlights that the Tomohon market was the first to stop trading in dog and cat meat and highlights “a historic agreement that will save thousands of animals from being beaten and burned for human consumption.”
Indonesia is still one of the few countries in the world that allows the sale of dog and cat meat. The HSI estimates that the signed agreement will save the lives of several thousand animals on the island, where about 130,000 dogs and cats are killed every year.
“The effects will be significant as a vast network of dealers, dog thieves and killers will be shut down,” HSI campaign director Lola Webber said, adding that the association hopes “the deal will become a school of learning.”
The market has been criticized for particularly brutal methods of slaughter, including beating, hanging or burning animals alive with a torch.
On the other hand, the covid-19 pandemic, which was linked to the open-air market, has also rekindled the fear of zoonoses (animal diseases transmitted to humans), which is one of the priorities of HSI and other groups who hope to prevent the spread of the rabies virus through their actions.
Elvianus Pongo, a trader in the Tomohon market with 25 years of experience, agreed that it was time to put an end to this trade. “I must have shot thousands of dogs. Sometimes I saw fear in their eyes when I caught them and I felt bad,” admitted the trader, quoted in the HSI statement.