WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, March 30, 2021 — The World Health Organization and the People’s Republic of China released a jointly-authored report affirming that COVID-19 most likely originated in bats and was transferred to humans through another animal. American Humane’s president and CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert encourages the public to stay abreast of the science on COVID-19 by reading updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and released the following statement:
“As we have long asserted and this report confirms, COVID-19 was brought to us via the inhumane trafficking and slaughter of exotic animals never intended for human consumption.
While this report does not fundamentally change our understanding of COVID-19 or its relationship to animals, it is important to underscore that companion animals such as cats and dogs do not pose a threat to families worried about the risk of infection.
The new report on the origins of COVID-19 from the World Health Organization and the People’s Republic of China confirms what epidemiologists have long suspected – the virus most likely originated in bats but was transferred to humans through another animal.
Pangolins, anteaters that live in parts of Africa and Asia, are a likely candidate for transmission. They are also the most trafficked mammal in the world and a prime candidate for understanding how the abuse of animals, endemic to the Wuhan wet market where the earliest clusters of human cases of COVID-19 were found, is a critical component of the development and spread of the novel coronavirus.
In order to prevent another coronavirus, policymakers and politicians must come together to renegotiate the social contract between humans and animals. American Humane’s New Deal for Animals, People and the World We Share is a 10-point policy plan for building a brighter future in a post-coronavirus world.”
About American Humane
American Humane is the country’s first national humane organization, founded in 1877. For more information, please visit www.AmericanHumane.org. To learn more about the organization’s push for a renewed human-animal contract, visit http://www.AmericanHumane.org/NewDeal.
