Live food fight

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

SAN FRANCSICO––The San
Francisco Animal Control and Welfare
Commission on October 17 again
delayed action on a proposal to ban the
sale of live animals as food. The proposal,
bitterly fought by Chinatown vendors,
will come up again November 14.
“St. Francis must be whirling
in his grave,” commented Action for
Animals founder Eric Mills. “In recent
weeks I have visited the live food markets
and have seen turtles gutted while
fully conscious; fish scaled alive; chickens,
ducks, and doves crammed in stifling
crates; and turtles and frogs piled
three and five deep, often with no water
whatever. Most of these markets are illegal
now. The Retail Food Facilities Law
states, ‘No live animal, bird, or fowl
shall be kept or allowed in any food
facility.’ Why is this not enforced?

“New York City banned the
sale of frogs and turtles for human consumption
in 1991, deeming them unfit
food sources, as notorious carriers of
salmonella,” Mills continued. “The San
Francisco Health Department says the
city averages 200 reported cases of salmonella
poisoning annually. Twenty
percent of the victims are AsianAmerican,
many of them children. Are
we animal protectionists the only ones
who care?”