Urge New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets to Close Live Animal Markets Now
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In a letter to the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets, local and national animal protection organizations including United Poultry Concerns are urging Commissioner Richard Ball to close down the 87 live animal markets across the state that sell live animals to the public and slaughter them onsite. The calls come amid an avian flu outbreak at a Queens live poultry market that led to temporary closure of 34 similar markets in New York and New Jersey. Approximately 170 birds were killed in the Queens facility where the flu was found.
What Can I Do?
If you are, and even if you are not, a New York state resident, please contact Commissioner Richard Ball. Tell him that his Department’s failure to close New York’s live animal markets prevents you from visiting the state out of concern for the avian flu viruses, campylobacter bacteria and other transmittable respiratory and intestinal diseases being spread to the streets and the air by these markets in which infected chickens and other sick animals are kept in squalor. For a full understanding of the situation, please read the letter by New York attorney Bonnie S. Klapper, copied below, and signed by United Poultry Concerns and four cosigners. See also Live Bird Markets.
Contact and request a reply from:
Commissioner Richard Ball
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
Mailing Address:
12235, 10B Airline Drive
Albany, New York 12205
Email: Commissioner@agriculture.ny.gov
Email: Angie.Valenti@agriculture.ny.gov
Website: www.agriculture.ny.gov
Contact Web Form: https://agriculture.ny.gov/contact-us
Phone: 1-800-554-4501
Bonnie S. Klapper, Esq.
51 Division Street, #124
Sag Harbor, New York 11963
bonniesklapper@bskesq.com
Tel: 516-721-0010
Fax: 516-921-2910
November 21, 2022
Commissioner Richard Ball
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
12235, 10B Airline Drive
Albany, New York 12205
Commissioner@agriculture.ny.gov
Angie.Valenti@agriculture.ny.gov
Re: Avian Flu Detected in Multiple Live Animal Markets in New York – Inadequate Protocols Put Public Health at Risk
Dear Commissioner Ball:
We write as a group of individuals and advocacy groups concerned about the spread of avian flu in New York State. For the reasons set forth below, we ask that the Department of Agriculture and Markets immediately suspend operations of the live markets in the state.
New York’s live animal markets are storefront slaughterhouses that are open to the public. Anyone can enter these live animal markets, without any protective gear, and walk among the tightly confined animals, selecting the animal they wish to have slaughtered. Among the animals slaughtered in these markets are chickens, ducks, quail, turkeys, guinea hens, lambs, goats and bulls. The sidewalks and streets in front of these markets are often contaminated with blood, guts, body parts and feces. People, including elementary students who attend schools near the markets, step in and track these materials all over the city and state, on to the subways and into their homes, potentially exposing themselves and their families to all sorts of diseases, including avian flu, E coli and salmonella. The stench of these markets permeates the air to such a degree that area residents, as well as passersby, describe the odors as offensive and, at times, overwhelming. Despite thousands of reports and complaints to city and state agencies, not one single agency has acted to clean up these live animal markets, shocking in the best of times and appalling during a global pandemic caused by unsanitary conditions at a wet market.
As you no doubt know, live markets are a breeding ground for organisms that may not cause disease in animal hosts but can be deadly to humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “more than 6 out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.”1
New York legislators are aware of the dangers presented by these live animal markets. In prohibiting new live markets from opening in residential areas of major cities, the New York Senate described such markets as follows:
Businesses and residents complained regularly about the unbearable odor that emanated from the markets, odors that became virtually intolerable during the hot summer months. Often, markets failed to properly dispose of animal entrails, which created undesirable conditions in the streets and on the sidewalks of the city. Floating feathers clogged sewer drains and air conditioning/heating ducts and presented asthma, allergy and respiratory hazards.
Experience in local communities has shown that these markets are not monitored appropriately due to the inadequate number of state and city inspectors necessary to ensure market compliance with health, food safety and environmental laws. Lack of monitoring became especially frightening in light of Mad Cow disease and recent outbreaks of avian influenza (“bird flu”).2
(Emphasis added).3
According to Professor KF Shortridge, a noted microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong who studied the 2005 avian flu outbreak which originated in Hong Kong, live bird markets are an “avian influenza melting pot.” 4
There is no need to speculate as to the possibility of a highly infectious disease appearing in these live animal markets. On November 15, 2022, a report was published in the periodical, Lancasterfarming.com. The report described the detection of avian flu in a live market in New York.5 At least 170 birds from a single live market were killed. Further reporting has revealed that avian flu was linked to approximately 34 live markets in New York. Many if not most of the New York live animal markets were required to “sell down” or depopulate the birds on their premises and close for three days to clean the markets.6
The guidance to “sell down,” meaning sell off, birds from markets where avian flu was detected defies both logic and good science. While avian flu does not often cross into the human population, when it does, it can be deadly.7 Humans have been infected with bird flu when the virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth or is inhaled. Most human infections have occurred after contact with infected birds or surfaces contaminated with bird flu virus.8 Handling the meat from birds infected with bird flu is a surefire way to get infected. 9Permitting these markets to sell infected birds, when humans will then handle those birds in the selling or cooking process, is a prescription for another pandemic.
Shutting the live markets down for three days for deep cleaning is also poor science. Efforts to purge bird flu viruses from live poultry markets over the years have been unsuccessful, despite periodic quarantine, depopulation, cleaning, and disinfection.10 Simply put, while the avian flu outbreak continues and spreads in the United States, there is no safe way for these live animal markets to operate.11
The only way to protect New Yorkers from a new pandemic originating in birds is to order live animal markets to cease operations immediately.12 Failure to do so demonstrates a cavalier attitude toward human health. Should the next pandemic originate in these markets, New York’s government officials will have only themselves to blame. Thus, we urge you to follow the science and suspend operations of these live markets immediately.
Very truly yours,
United Poultry Concerns
Slaughter Free NYC
Humane Long Island
NYCLASS
Their Turn
cc.: Dr. Mary Bassett
Dr. Ashwin Vasan
Dr. Irina Gelman
Dr. Gregson Pigott
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zoonotic Diseases (2017).
[2] N.Y. Senate Bill S7345, 2015–2016 Sess. (N.Y. 2016) (justifying, in “Sponsor Memo” section, amendment of N.Y. Agric. & Mkts. Law § 96-b), https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/S7345.
[3] Pending before the New York legislature is a bill that would suspend operation of all live markets in New York State until such time as a safety assessment study is completed. See A10399, proposed bill.
[4] Shortridge KF, Peiris JS, and Guan Y. 2003. The next influenza pandemic: lessons from Hong Kong. Journal of Applied Microbiology 94(1):70
[5] 170 Birds Dead After New York Live Bird Market Hit With Avian Influenza
[6] Biosecurity is Key in Preventing Avian Influenza Spread
[7] The CDC has said “[i]llnesses in humans from bird flu virus infections have ranged in severity from no symptoms or mild illness (e.g., eye infection, upper respiratory symptoms) to severe disease (e.g., pneumonia) that resulted in death.” Current U.S. Bird Flu Situation in Humans
[8] Bird Flu Virus Infections in Humans
[9] Bird Flu Virus Infections in Humans
[10] Human Health Implications of U.S. Live Bird Markets in the Spread of Avian Influenza
[11] Of note, the authors of this letter have reason to believe that at least two markets remained open in defiance of the Department of Agriculture’s order to sell down/depopulate, close for three days while cleaning and then reopen. It is clearly impossible for the DAM to ensure that the live markets followed the DAM direction.
[12] It is incomprehensible that, in April 2022, the DAM banned all fowl auctions, meets and swaps to limit the spread of avian flu, yet refuses to suspend operation of the live markets where far more individuals come into contact with infected birds. See: New York State Proactively bans all Fowl Auctions, Sales, Meets, and Swaps to Safeguard Against Avian Flu