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Just three weeks after New York’s 80+ live animal markets re-opened following a five day mandatory closure due to avian flu outbreaks, the New York State Department of Ag & Markets reported seven new outbreaks affecting thousands of birds in four of the city’s five boroughs. In response to media inquiries about the new outbreaks, a spokesperson for the agency said that the state would “order another shutdown if clear evidence persists that bird flu is spreading in the live poultry business.” Public health advocates and animal rights groups are asserting that temporary closures won’t stop the spread of avian flu and other infectious diseases and that their operation in NYC poses an ongoing risk to the public health. 

Since early February, when the live markets re-opened, Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of the animal advocacy group NYCLASS, and anthrozooligist John DiLeonardo, Executive Director of the bird rescue and animal advocacy group Humane Long Island, have paid several visits. “Our investigation showed the same dangerous conditions that existed when Governor Hochul shut down the markets the first time,” said Birnkrant. “They continue to confine multiple species of  birds and other animals, many of whom are visibly sick, in crowded cages as members of the public walk in and out with no restrictions or safety measures in place.”

Avian flu outbreaks that have occurred since NYC’s live animal markets reopened following a five day closure in February.

DiLeonardo, who has rescued more than 100 animals from NYC’s live animal markets, says all of them were sick with coccidiosis, aspergillus, staph infection, respiratory infection, or infectious diseases. Avian influenza,  however, is the scariest, according to DiLeonardo because, if it mutates into a strain that can be transmitted among humans, it would be 100 times more deadly than COVID-19.”

Chicken with open wound at an NYC live animal market during avian flu outbreak

In early March, Guardian Angels founder and 2025 NYC Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa made two unannounced visits to several wet markets in Brooklyn and Queens. Appalled by what he witnessed, he is now calling on elected officials and public health authorities to shut them down. “The wet markets are life-sized petri dish filled with thousands of animals who are visibly sick and suffering from illness and intensive confinement. New York should not allow wet markets to operate anywhere, especially in the densely populated residential neighborhoods where most of them are located. The unsafe and inhumane conditions in these storefront slaughterhouses are unfixable.”  

Just three weeks after New York’s 80+ live animal markets re-opened following a five day closure due to multiple #avianflu outbreaks, @nyagandmarkets has reported seven new outbreaks affecting thousands of birds in four of NYC’s five boroughs.

After visiting four of these wet… pic.twitter.com/vPIR8dbBpW

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) March 13, 2025

In May 2020, NY State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and NY State Senator Luis Sepulveda introduced legislation to shut down New York’s live animal markets “to help prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases.” The legislation, if passed into law, would convene a “Task Force on Slaughterhouse Public Health and Safety and Animal Welfare” comprised of experts in epidemiology, veterinary science, and animal welfare to determine whether any amount of regulation can make the slaughterhouses safe enough to operate.

Media coverage of avian flu outbreaks in NYC’s live animal markets