S4. E3: Pei Su: COVID-19, The Wildlife Trade And China
COVID-19 has brought with it a lot of tragedy and devastation across the entire planet and unfortunately there will be more of both in the coming months. But, like all crises, it’s also brought with it a whole lot of opportunity for change. Whether or not we take those opportunities and run with them is up to us, but I can attest from personal experience that when those types of opportunities are ignored, the types that arise from crisis, it usually doesn’t end well. Whatever caused said crisis will come back – only next time it will be bigger and way more destructive.
And, one of the biggest, loudest, most glaring opportunities that we have sitting right in front of our faces at this very moment in time is to change the way we treat animals. COVID-19, like all zoonotic diseases, started because we treat animals like garbage, like objects, like none of us give a damn. And if that does not change – good luck next time. There will be more pandemics and they’ll probably be much more catastrophic than the one we are currently in the midst of.
If you ask me, I’d say it’s the perfect moment to change ALL of the systems and industries in which we exploit animals: factory farming, fur farming, wild animal markets, the wildlife trade, poaching, habitat devastation, the global fishing industry, and on and on and on…
But, because COVID-19 almost definitely came from a wild animal market in Wuhan, China, that is the system that is on the hot seat at the moment - as it should be; I’m just saying, that while we are looking into it, it’s probably a good idea to take a deep dive into the rest of them too.
There are a lot of rumors and misinformation getting passed around the globe in terms of China’s wildlife trade and markets: what has been banned, what hasn’t, and what all of it means. In today’s conversation, Pei Su the Executive Director and Co-founder of ACTAsia answers many of my questions about what’s happening on the ground in China, what the bans actually mean, and where the many loopholes lie.
Pei Su has been on the front lines to create a better world for animals for three decades. She is a wealth of knowledge, a force and an inspiration.
In 2011, she co-founded ACTAsia – an organization that’s dedicated to creating change in China through humane education. What that means is that they go into schools and train the teachers to teach a 6-year program called Caring for Life Education. The kids are in the program from ages 6 -12 and they learn animal welfare, empathy toward animals, environmental issues, social welfare, and citizenship. To date, 80,000 kids have gone through Caring For Life and 2,000 teachers have been trained. Pei believes that things won’t really change for animals in China until people start to view them differently – and, the best people for that job are the children – as they will create change for generations to come.
Today’s episode was recorded on Wednesday April 15th as a live webinar conversation between Pei Su,and myself.
There is also a ton of good information on what’s happening in China on ACTAsia.org
Thank you,
Elizabeth Novogratz
Visit ActAsia.org
Follow ActAsia on Instagram
"Like" Act Asia On Facebook
Follow Act Asia on Twitter
You can listen to our podcast via our website or you can subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Play. If you enjoy listening to the Species Unite podcast, we’d love to hear from you! You can rate and review via Apple Podcast here. If you support our mission to change the narrative toward a world of co-existence, we would love for you to make a donation or become an official Species Unite member!
As always, thank you for tuning in - we truly believe that stories have the power to change the way the world treats animals and it’s a pleasure to have you with us on this.