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Like most, I wasn't really aware of wet markets until Covid reports came out. And I'm sure like most, I was instantly turned off by it, realizing how these markets could lead to all kinds of sanitation issues, definitely including animal to human virus transmission. Mostly just from the lack of regulation.
I also agree this certainly just seems logical to go hand in hand with inhumane practices towards animals. Again, due to lack of regulation. Or at least from what I have read thus far, there doesn't seem to be much of any rules toward preparing and selling the meat in wet markets. Correct me if I am wrong though.
My first thought was - of course wet markets exist in China. When you have that many people, you can't be as picky about what you eat, and maybe even makes sense to be more lax on how it is processed and presented to you.
But of course everything comes at a price. Much like with the disgusting and inhumane nature of factory farming in the United States, we have all convinced ourselves that for the human race to eat meat on a massive scale, we have to sacrifice our values and ethics on the way we treat animals. Even if we don't believe it, most of us go along with it, just trying to avoid the knowledge of factory farming cruelty in general, mostly because a lot of us think its the only way to get cheap hamburgers or whatever.
Luckily farmers across the US are proving that ethical treatment of animals is possible, and that we can still produce meat to the masses AND be ethical at the same time. Hopefully that trend sweeps the globe and the West and the East stop buying into the lie that we can't feed ourselves protein and be kind to animals throughout the process at the same time.
If we really can't pull that off, here's hoping lab grown meat is just as good for us in the future, and becomes cheap enough in time so we can make the big switch. But even then, we have to figure out how to live in more harmony with animals, with hunting, conservation and meat preparation, farming and all the other ways we come into contact and interact with them.