Dog and cat meat banned at famous Indonesian market

Tomohon Extreme Market, which specializes in selling live animal meat in Indonesia, has been banned from slaughtering and selling dogs and cats since July.

Tomohon Extreme Market, located in North Sulawesi, is a popular destination for international tourists to Indonesia. This market specializes in selling live animal meat, from python meat, bat meat, skewered rats, to dog and cat meat.

The market was condemned in 2018 when international animal rights activists posted videos on social media of dogs and cats being brutally beaten and burned alive.

A dog meat stall at Tomohon Extreme market in 2020. Photo: Skynews Indonesia

According to Humane Society International, last July, Mayor Caroll Senduk of Tomohon signed a law banning the sale of dog and cat meat at the market. All vendors there also signed an agreement to permanently stop the slaughter and sale of dogs and cats.

Lola Webber, campaign director for Dog Meat Free Indonesia at Humane Society International, said activists are calling on major travel companies around the world to stop promoting Tomohon Extreme as a tourist destination. Among them is Tripadvisor, which has agreed to remove information about Tomohon Extreme from its platform to recommend destinations to tourists.

Ms. Webber shared that animal protection activists have been trying to eliminate the trade and slaughter of dogs and cats at this traditional market since 2017. The recent result is like a "huge victory", helping thousands of dogs and cats "to be freed".

“Traders are given a small subsidy to stop trading in dog and cat meat. However, they still trade in many other types of live animal meat, which pose a risk of spreading infectious diseases such as Covid-19 or rabies,” Ms. Webber said.

The director of the Dog Meat Free Indonesia campaign hopes that the ban at Tomohon market will serve as a precedent to work with the government and market management to influence traders and consumers of dog and cat meat in other provinces.

Animal rights activists told CNBC Travel that the biggest barrier to ending the dog and cat meat trade in particular and the live animal meat trade in general lies in regulation.

Frank Delano Manus, an animal rights advocate with Animal Friends Manado Indonesia, said 95 percent of exotic animal meat in North Sulawesi comes from neighboring provinces, often without government inspection or quarantine.

In 2020, Animal Friends Manado Indonesia tried to stop the sale of snake and bat meat at Tomohon Extreme market, when the Covid-19 pandemic spread, but failed.

For years, Tomohon Extreme has been promoted as a popular tourist destination in North Sulawesi. The ban on dog and cat meat at the market has not been seen to reduce the number of visitors to the area. On the contrary, many tourists support the regulation. Some Tripadvisor users commented that they felt guilty and haunted by the scene of slaughter in the market and did not want to visit such an "inhumane" destination during their trip.

Bich Phuong

According to CNBC

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