JAKARTA: A notorious Indonesian animal market has ended the sale of dog and cat meat after years of activist pressure to stop the trade and its brutal methods of slaughter, according to campaigners.
The previously uncompromising bazaar is the first such market in the country to finally back down and stop the trade of cat and dog meat, animal rights group Humane Society International said in a statement Friday. Indonesia remains one of the few countries in the world that still permits the sale of dog and cat meat due to local traditions and culture.
"The impact will be far-reaching, shutting down business for the traders' vast network of traffickers, dog thieves and slaughterers," Lola Webber, HSI's director of campaigns to end the dog meat trade, said.The rights group said the agreement has potentially saved the lives of thousands of pups on the island, where as many as 130,000 are slaughtered annually.