Breaking News: Please join Friends of Animals in celebrating the announcement made today by World Health Organization, calling for the global closure of live wild animal markets to reduce public health risks. Our favorite passage says:

” WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the United Nations Environment Programme call on national competent authorities to suspend the trade in live caught wild animals of mammalian species for food or breeding purposes and close sections of food markets selling live caught wild animals of mammalian species as an emergency measure.”

Last year, FoA wrote international officials at the United Nations, World Health Organization and Congressional representatives urging the closure of these markets.

The challenge right now is implementation of actions national governments should consider, and we’re working on further strategies to encourage countries to follow the WHO recommendation.

We will continue to work to gain support of the measure from the Biden-Harris administration.

Three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. They are transmitted from animals to other hosts to humans or directly to humans after contact via slaughterhouses, hunting, poaching and trade in wildlife wet markets. These diseases have killed more than 32 million humans.