Culture vs. Cruelty Controversy over the treatment of live animals in urban Asian markets rages on. A new bill in California aims to end the battle once and for all. To a visitor accustomed to neatly-packaged supermarket flesh, some of the markets' wares are undeniably disturbing.
Fish flop desperately in a thin layer of water.
Skinned amphibians are stacked up like frog-shaped globs of pale pink jelly. And local leaders take the politically expedient position of doing essentially nothing. The Asian community feels like it's a cultural issue, and that the animal-rights activists are insensitive to their culture. After a string of legal and political victories for markets in San Francisco, where the war has raged hotter than anywhere else, one California legislator has introduced a bill which would, if passed, clearly define what constitutes animal cruelty in such markets. But early on, public opinion quickly turned against the activists when media-savvy Asian business owners charged them with cultural insensitivity.