Celebrities Kim Basinger, Ricky Gervais and Peter Egan have joined campaigners from the Dog Meat Free Indonesia coalition to celebrate the banning of the dog and cat meat trade in the country’s capital, Jakarta. The ban was introduced after an extensive campaign highlighted the severe animal cruelty and risks to human health associated with zoonotic diseases such as rabies. The trade sees over one million dogs and numerous cats killed each year, most being stolen pets or strays taken from the streets and illegally smuggled to trade hotspots. Investigations by DMFI suggest around 340 dogs per day are killed for their meat in Jakarta.
