Exploring the inhumane conditions of animal slaughter in San Francisco’s Chinatown wet market

Turtles are reportedly being subjected to harsh beatings and killings in the Chinese ‘wet markets’ of San Francisco. An animal charity has captured video evidence of this ‘illegal’ activity.

A video, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, depicts workers slicing open turtles while their limbs are still in motion. Additionally, the video shows frogs being partially suffocated before being decapitated while alive, fish left out of water to endure a slow death, and other animals being bludgeoned.

Furthermore, the footage reveals concerning health risks such as bloody storage containers, live fish being handled in unhygienic conditions on grimy shop floors, and even on the street outside.

The alleged acts of animal cruelty were documented by nonprofit organization Animal Outlook, which filmed undercover at three live animal markets in the California city in September.

The charity already called out similar conditions in 2022, and complains that the city has done little to stop it – despite what Animal Outlook claims is clear-cut lawbreaking.

A DailyMail.com reporter visited the three Chinatown markets on Christmas Eve to investigate what was uncovered in the nonprofit’s footage.

At Liang’s Seafood, bloody fish carcasses were splayed out next to a shallow crate with live fish gasping in three inches of water.

Frogs squirmed in another packed container. A worker grabbed an apparently dead frog and handed it to their manager, who tossed it near a sink at the checkout.

Staff at Liang’s and M.P. Seafood Market did not speak English, and managers at both declined to comment after being shown questions written in Cantonese.

Both shops were crammed with crates and fish tanks, with blood and slime dripping off the counters onto wet floors. The stench of the carcasses wafted onto the sidewalk.

Pacific Street Seafood was closed on Tuesday morning, and the owners could not be reached by phone for comment.

These conditions that were witnessed in the markets could also raise public health concerns. A 2024 Harvard study found that live animal markets are ‘high risk locations for zoonotic [disease] spillover’, and pointed out that ‘SARS is believed to have spilled over at an animal market in China, where wild civets were held in tight wire cages.’

‘Animal markets where animals are stored alive and often slaughtered on site are critical touchpoints where pathogens can move and have moved from animals into humans,’ the study stated.

When investigators for Animal Outlook visited the markets in September, they filmed ‘a turtle struck with a mallet, their legs moving in response to being cut apart’, ‘frogs being beheaded without prior stunning’, ‘fish being bludgeoned multiple times and butchered’ and ‘live fish falling onto the street during unloading from a truck’.

The charity’s attorney Jareb Gleckel wrote to the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control (SFACC) on September 25 detailing the shocking findings.

‘I documented a customer selecting a softshell turtle. A worker then strikes the turtle near their head twice with a mallet and begins butchering them,’ the unnamed investigator wrote of their visit to M.P. Seafood Market on Jackson Street.

‘The turtle’s legs are seen moving in response to being cut apart.

‘I documented a worker putting three live frogs in a small plastic bag. He kept them in the closed bag for at least 30 seconds before killing them.

‘Another worker then removed them from the plastic bag and killed them by decapitation using a cleaver. He did not stun the frogs before killing them.’

At Pacific Street Seafood on Stockton Street, the investigator documented a heartbreaking incident of a turtle that ‘tried to escape by climbing up the wall of the container, then fell backwards.’

They also saw turtles’ legs moving while being butchered there – indicating the animals were still alive.

There were potentially unsanitary as well as allegedly inhumane conditions at Liang’s Seafood, also on Stockton Street, according to the letter.

‘I documented frogs and turtles kept in plastic bins. One frog was missing a left eye,’ the investigator wrote. ‘There was visible blood in the plastic bin containing softshell turtles on both the bottom of the container and on the shell of one turtle.’

Workers delivering live fish from a truck, allegedly dropped several on the ground, leaving them there for about a minute before placing them in a ‘large gray trash bin’ for delivery.

‘The worker on the ground occasionally tosses fish back onto the truck and they are left there alive out of water,’ the investigator wrote.

‘Cutting open live animals and dismembering them amounts to torture, torment, cruel mutilation, cruel killing, causing needless suffering and inflicting unnecessary cruelty, all of which is prohibited under California’s general animal cruelty law,’ Animal Outlook said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

‘Unlike in many other states California law does not contain an exception for the customary or routine practices of animal agriculture.’

The nonprofit said it has been trying to get SFACC to take action for over two years after documenting similar incidents in 2022, but claimed the department has only issued one citation and repeatedly refused to inspect the markets when alleged abuse was occurring.

‘SFACC has previously expressed that its officers must witness cruel acts firsthand, while they are in progress, in order to take enforcement action,’ the charity said.

‘But when we subsequently called SFACC to report cruelty – a worker suffocating a frog in a plastic bag – the agency explained that no officers would be available to inspect for at least several weeks.’

SFACC and the city government did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Animal Outlook has support from a city government advisory body that gives advice to the mayor and board of supervisors on animal-related matters.

Michael Angelo Torres, chairman of the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare, told DailyMail.com that he believes the ‘inhumane’ conditions at the markets should ‘immediately stop’.

‘As chairperson of the commission, I unconditionally support doing everything that we, as a city, can and should do to immediately stop the inhumane conditions in these markets,’ Torres said.