To date, Swine Flu has killed over 80 in Mexico, while there are at least 20 confirmed cases in US and suspected cases in about 5 countries. Swine Flu is a respiratory disease affecting pigs that in caused by a strain of influenza – it has since mutated to combine with human and bird flu. The news on TV last night emphasised that it cannot be contracted through eating of pork. Now, we have heard of derogatory descriptions such as ‘pig-headed’ – which means to be ‘stubbornly stupid’…
Looks like the tables of name-calling are turned. It’s incredibly obstinate and ignorant for humans not to realise that animal-based viruses usually mutate and spread because they are bred and ill-treated on massive scales – by humans themselves! No animal would become sick in new ways without reason. WHO (World Health Organisation) uses 6 phases of alert on the seriousness of spread of disease. The current is already 3, while that of a pandemic is 4! The last flu pandemic in 1968 killed about a million globally!
History tends to repeat when we fail to learn from it. First, there was SARS, then there was Bird Flu. How many more rounds must we go through before we all wake up? The usual precautions in the press say to… avoid contact with persons with flu, avoid crowded places, observe good personal hygiene… But what about avoiding contact with pork(-eating) to reduce pig-breeding and mistreatment, what about avoiding rearing excess pigs in disease-prone crowded places for profiteering, and what about observing truly good human-livestock hygiene by not having anything to do with literally bloody carcasses? Bird Flu still might strike on its own, while there is Swine Flu now. What other reasons do we need to give up the demand to devour our two and four-legged friends?
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I don’t really like peta.
I really don’t think swine flu is a big deal. I can’t see this actually convincing anyone to stop eating animals.
Ya it’s probably not a big deal if one or one’s loved ones do not contract it. It’s a great deal for those who were dead and their loved one mourning for them. And it’s definitely a huge deal if one contracts the virus and passes it on to many others thinking it’s not a big deal!
It probably does not convince anyone to stop eating animals, but you have missed the point here : “It’s incredibly obstinate and ignorant for humans not to realise that animal-based viruses usually mutate and spread because they are bred and ill-treated on massive scales – by humans themselves!”
And to stop such irresponsible farm practice, the best way is to not support the trade which translates to – not eating or buying meat.
I find it unbelievable too that people don’t seem to see the connection when it’s so obvious. Lack of good karma?
Lack of wisdom i guess… So it’s up to those who are more aware to spread the truth! 🙂 No one else is gonna speak up for the animals other than the humans who refuse to bully them 8/
From a friend… Whenever there is a virus outbreak, we blame the government, vaccines, crowded places, infected people, animals and millions of innocent animals have to be culled… but the true cause of the swine flu is in “our demand for meatâ€. Meat demand = intensive farming = use of antibiotics = creation of super strains of viruses. Intensive farming conditions such as chicken farms are ideal for the flourishing of viruses, epidemics and pandemics. Antibiotics can destroy the weaker viruses, but leave the stronger strains to mutate into those highly infectious and deadly to humans. As long as there are intensive animal factory farms, one potential source of pandemics will exist.
Mike Davis (Guardian UK) writes well and the comments are interesting:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/29/letters-swine-flu-intensive-farming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health
Whatever the accusations and arguments, cramming animals in squalid conditions and unscrupulous practices always breeds diseases and then epidemics when given time for germs to breed and mutate and change host. Govts & industries may seem to have forgotten about Mad Cow and Bird Flu, let’s hope Swine Flu will wake them up.