Cape Town, 24 July 2023 – The notorious Tomohon Market in North Indonesia has finally stopped slaughtering dogs and cats to supply the dog meat trade. It will become the first market of its kind in Indonesia to do so.

The extreme market is very well known for being a hub for selling wild and live animals for consumption and has for years faced protests from campaigners spearheaded by the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia coalition (DMFI). In 2019 DMFI released shocking footage of animals being killed and blow-torched while still alive  caused outrage across the community and internationally.

In 2021, the market was exposed as back up and running despite the World Health Organisation calling for live animal street sales to be ended after COVID-19, which FOUR PAWS called a “ticking timebomb” for a future pandemic. As of today, the extreme market continues to sell wild and protected species such as snakes, bats, and reptiles for consumption.

Only this year a petition started by Humane Society International (HSI) received more than 73,000 signatures calling for the Tomohon Extreme Markets closure. HSI and their local partners Animal Friends Manado Indonesia then lobbied the Tomohon government to take action – with effective results on the issue.

FOUR PAWS over the past two years have collected two million signatures calling for the end to the dog and cat meat trade across Southeast Asia, while bringing together 75 major travel tourism operators and businesses pledging to back the same campaign.

FOUR PAWS, the global animal welfare organisation, said after years of animal welfare groups witnessing extreme cruelty at the hands of sellers at the Tomohon Market and campaigning for the issues to be addressed said “it is a huge relief” the cruel practices and suffering of thousands of animals has finally come to an end.

Dr Karanvir Kukreja, FOUR PAWS Head of Campaigns Southeast Asia (Companion Animals), said, “This decision could not have come soon enough. The work of DMFI over the past five years has relentlessly exposed the Tomohon Extreme Market was one of the worst animal welfare cases we have seen when it comes to the dog and cat meat trade. What we would like to see now is a national ban after years of exposing severe and endless animal cruelty.”

Earlier this year, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia banned the sale of dog meat altogether. A Nielsen opinion poll in January 2021, commissioned by Dog Meat Free Indonesia (DMFI), revealed that 93% of Indonesians support a national dog meat ban, and just 4.5% have ever consumed dog meat.

Dr. Kukreja added, “The trade also poses a risk to human health due to zoonotic disease and rabies. As we have seen from scientific studies that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) may have occurred via the animal markets and the live wildlife trade.

“Polls have also shown that the dog and cat meat trade is a concern for tourists. 24,200 tourists wrote to the tourism boards of Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam in 2021 asking for an end to the trade."

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