犬猫の食肉販売に幕　インドネシアの「過激市場」

【ジャカルタＡＦＰ＝時事】インドネシア・スラウェシ島の市場が２１日、犬と猫の食肉販売を終了した。販売や食肉処理の方法が残酷だとして、動物愛護団体は長年、禁止するよう求めていた。（写真は資料写真）
　インドネシアは犬と猫を食用にする伝統と文化を有し、食肉販売を今なお許可している世界でも数少ない国の一つ。
　スラウェシ島トモホンの通称「過激市場」は、コウモリ、ネズミ、ヘビ、サルと並んで犬と猫の肉を販売していることで知られていた。
　だが、動物愛護団体「ヒューメイン・ソサエティー・インターナショナル（ＨＳＩ）」は２１日、これまで呼び掛けに応じなかった同市場がついに犬と猫の食肉販売を停止したと発表。市場としては国内初だという。
　ＨＳＩによれば、同市場で取引を続けていた６業者が販売を停止する合意書に署名し、トモホン市長も同市場での販売を禁止する条例に署名した。
　ＨＳＩは「歴史的な合意」だとし、これにより「多数の動物が人間に食べられるために殴り殺され、丸焼きにされることもなくなる」と評価した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/07/24-15:30）

A notorious Indonesian animal market has ended the sale of dog and cat meat after years of activist pressure to stop the trade and its brutal methods of slaughter, according to campaigners.
Canine and feline meat were on the menu alongside bats, rats, snakes and monkeys at the Tomohon Extreme Market on Sulawesi island, known for its disturbing culinary spread until a ban was imposed on Friday.
The previously uncompromising bazaar is the first such market in the country to finally back down and stop the trade of cat and dog meat, animal rights group Humane Society International (HSI) said in a statement Friday.
It called the ban a historic agreement that will spare thousands of animals from being bludgeoned and blowtorched to death for human consumption.
Indonesia remains one of the few countries in the world that still permits the sale of dog and cat meat due to local traditions and culture.
The market's six remaining dog and cat meat traders signed an agreement to stop the sale, and the mayor of Tomohon city signed into law a ban on future trade at the market, the group said in a statement.
The impact will be far-reaching, shutting down business for the traders' vast network of traffickers, dog thieves and slaughterers, Lola Webber, HSI's director of campaigns to end the dog meat trade, said.
We hope this unprecedented agreement will set the standard.
The rights group said the agreement has potentially saved the lives of thousands of pups on the island, where as many as 130,000 are slaughtered annually.
The market had courted widespread criticism from activists for the methods used to slaughter animals, such as beatings, hangings and blowtorching of fur while they were still alive.
Those calls ramped up after the first cluster of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 was linked to a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, stoking fears elsewhere that viruses were jumping from animals to humans.
HSI and Indonesian rights groups are also trying to stop the trade to prevent the spread of the deadly rabies virus.
Elvianus Pongoh, one of the sellers at Tomohon for 25 years, said the time was right to end the trade.
I have probably slaughtered thousands of dogs. Every now and then I would see the fear in their eyes... as I came for them, and it made me feel bad, he said in the HSI press release.
I know this ban is best for the animals and also best to protect the public.