Once Again Animals To Pay For Man's Stupidity And Selfishness

GUANGZHOU, China - By boiling and drowning, electrocution and incineration, civet cats were put to death Tuesday in southern China in a mass eradication designed to stem a suspected — but unproven — link to SARS. Said one newspaper: “Watch the civets turn to vapor.”

The high-profile move represented a clear message from a government stung by accusations of a sluggish response to the initial SARS outbreak last year.

The cull, in which authorities hope to slaughter 10,000 of the weasel-like mammals and their related brethren by Saturday, kicked into gear on the same day China’s first SARS case of the season — a man whose illness was cited as justification for the civet kill — was pronounced “fully recovered.”

Hundreds of animals were seized from wildlife markets and killed despite pleas for caution from the World Health Organization. Officials were also checking highway traffic for smuggled animals, which many in coastal southern China consider a delicacy.

Animals drowned, electrocuted Provincial authorities set a deadline of Saturday to finish the slaughter in Guangdong, where medical investigators believe crucial clues to the origins of severe acute respiratory syndrome may lie.

Newspaper photos showed health workers in white protective suits, goggles, surgical masks and elbow-length rubber gloves drowning animals. On local TV, crews in jumpsuits hosed down empty cages at Guangzhou’s wild animal market.

FACT FILE The civet and SARS

APTN file

• Appearance • Uses • Traits Health officials in China say the SARS virus may have spread to humans from civet cats. Click the buttons on the left for a brief description of the animal. The civet cat, found across the world, resembles a large weasel, with a catlike body and a long tail. The civet’s fur can be gray or brown, have stripes or spots, and bands of color on its tail. Most are between five and 11 pounds, but some can weigh up to about 25 pounds. Civets are considered a culinary delicacy in China. Some types of civets are hunted for their fur. Civets also secrete musk that can be used to make perfume. Of the family Viverridae, the civet cat is a primarily nocturnal animal closely related to the mongoose. There are several species. Some are carnivores that live on the ground, while others, such as the ones associated with SARS in China, are masked palm civets that live in trees and eat fruit. Source: Associated Press • Printable version Civets seized in Guangzhou were electrocuted and their carcasses burned, said an employee of the city Hygiene Supervision Bureau. “We first put them in disinfectant to sterilize them, then electrocute them, then burn them,” said the man, who wouldn’t give his name.

The Yangcheng Evening News gave readers a step-by-step illustrated account of how the civets, once killed, would be boiled for six hours until they “turn to vapor.”

In other areas, authorities were drowning civets and other animals by lowering them in cages into vats of water, the Guangzhou Daily said.

Genetic tests have suggested a link between civets and the SARS virus diagnosed in a 32-year-old TV producer in Guangdong — China’s first case of the disease this season.

TIMELINE The spread of SARS The following is a short chronology of SARS from the first outbreak in 2002 to the latest case in China:

November 2002 The mystery disease first appears in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

March 2003 Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.

April 2 The WHO issues a rare travel warning, urging travelers to postpone visits to Hong Kong and China’s southern Guangdong province. Beijing, China’s Shanxi province and Canada’s Toronto are also added later in April.

April 10 Scientists identify the virus behind SARS.

April 18 China, accused of not admitting the full extent of the outbreak, sacks its health minister after reporting an alarming spike in SARS deaths and cases in the capital.

April 28 The WHO says the SARS outbreak has peaked in Asia, except for China, where it demanded better cooperation.

April 29 The WHO lifts its warning against unnecessary travel to Toronto.

May 21 The WHO extends its travel warning for all of Taiwan as the island tries to stop SARS from spreading.

May 24 Hong Kong reports no new SARS infections for the first time since the outbreak began in March.

May 26 The WHO puts Toronto back on its list of SARS-affected areas, following reports of more suspected cases and deaths.

May 28 Russia closes parts of its border with China after reporting its first case of SARS.

May 30 Singapore says the WHO will remove it from the list of SARS-affected areas.

June 17 The WHO says the number of new and current cases of SARS around the globe is continuing to decline, and it is removing a warning against unnecessary travel to Taiwan.

June 23 The WHO declares Hong Kong SARS-free, after nearly four months in which the disease killed nearly 300 people.

June 24 The WHO lifts its warning against travel to Beijing and declares the city free of the spread of SARS.

July 5 The WHO declares the global outbreak of SARS contained. The disease had spread to 30 countries around the world, killing more than 800 people.

September A medical researcher in Singapore tests positive for SARS while studying the virus. In December a medical researcher in Taiwan also tests positive. Both appear to be isolated cases.

January 5, 2004 China confirms that a 32-year-old television producer in southern Guangdong province has SARS, the country’s first case since the world epidemic was declared over in July. • Printable version “Guangdong is entering an extraordinary period, and extraordinary measures are called for,” said Feng Liuxiang, deputy director of Guangdong’s provincial Health Bureau, quoted on the Web site of the Guangzhou Daily newspaper.

No definitive link to SARS But WHO investigators say no definitive connection has been established and expressed concern that a mass slaughter might spread the germ or eradicate crucial evidence of SARS’ origins.

As Asia girded for a possible second season of SARS and its airports tightened scrutiny on travelers from Guangdong, mounting evidence suggested a Filipino couple suspected of having the virus were clear of it.

And China emphasized that it was still safe. ““We need to be vigilant, but we don’t want to panic,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.

INTERACTIVE • New diseases Where do they come from? The infection of a 32-year-old Guangdong TV producer was confirmed as SARS on Monday after weeks of testing in China and Hong Kong. On Tuesday, the government said the man had “fully recovered” and would leave the hospital Thursday.

The official Xinhua news agency ran excerpts of an interview with the man whom it identified only by his surname, Luo. He said he went to the hospital last month with a headache and a fever and never expected the events that followed.

“I am confident about China’s ability to eradicate SARS,” Luo was quoted as saying.

Xinhua said Luo expressed thanks to the physicians who treated him and was “back to his normal cheerfulness” on Tuesday, the agency said.

Health experts are still trying to figure out how Luo was exposed.

The first case of SARS was recorded in Guangdong in November 2002. The disease killed 774 people, most of them in Asia, before subsiding in June.

There were no signs of public anxiety in Guangzhou. No one on the street was wearing a mask — a marked contrast to the city of shrouded faces that was visible at the height of its SARS outbreak last year.

“If SARS returns, no one will come to Guangzhou,” said resident Chen Zhiyong. “The city and provincial government will all work hard because they know the disease will severely hurt the economy.”



I am so angery first at those who trap and sell these innocent creatures. Then at those who buy them. And finally at the Chinese govt fro destroying all of them. It is not the animals fault people trap and sell them and others buy and eat them. I say punish the trappers sellers and buyers. How very sick and inhumane. What a bunch of sick people Personally I think all of the so called wildlife markets should be closed down and the operaters severly punished and the animals if healthy returned to the wild

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