Live Animal Food Markets
California annually imports some two million American bullfrogs (commercially-raised) and 300,000 freshwater turtles (taken from the wild) for human consumption, non-natives all. All are diseased and/or parasitized, though it is illegal to sell such products (CCR 236, Title 14). Released into local waters, the non-natives prey upon and displace our native species.
The market animals are kept in horrendous conditions, often butchered while fully conscious. Worse, the majority of the bullfrogs carry the dreaded chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has caused the extinctions of 100-plus amphibian species worldwide in recent years.
Easy fix: The Department of Fish & Wildlife (DFW) should cease issuing the import permits. The DFW and the Fish & Game Commission have received more than 4,000 letters supporting a ban, from environmental and sporting organizations, animal welfare groups and the general public. Former Resources Secretary Huey Johnson wrote twice, all to no avail. The powers-that-be seem more concerned about politics-as-usual, profits and cultural/racial matters than the REAL issues here — environmental protection, public health, unacceptable animal cruelty, and law enforcement.
WRITE: Gov. Gavin Newsom and all state legislators, c/o The State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814; and Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, DFW Director Chuck Bonham, and the Fish & Game Commission, all c/o Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Emails: secretary@resources.ca.gov; director@wildlife.ca.gov; fgc@fgc.ca.gov.
–Eric Mills, Oakland
