Swine Flu: Pandemic or Revenge? April 28, 2009
Posted by Rachel-O | Permalink | Comments ( 40 ) | TrackBack
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People who eat meat continue to pay for animals to live their entire lives in their own excrement, in tiny urine soaked cages or in crates so small they can't turn around, lay down comfortably, or do anything that is natural to them. These same people are shocked when animalborne diseases—like swine flu, start to infect and kill humans across the globe.
Well, we're not shocked. Anyone who knows how animals are treated only to be slaughtered and eaten, knows it's only a matter of time until the horrible conditions we raise animals in comes back to, well, kill us.
A headline in Vera Cruz's La Marcha points the blame for swine flu at gi-normous pig-breeding farms in Mexico, that are operated by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world's largest hog producer—remember them? Local residents reportedly believe that feces from the pig farms has contaminated the water and the air, spreading the virus to people. Another article in the Huffington Post quotes La Jornada newspaper, which points the finger at a factory farm in La Gloria, Mexico, saying, "Clouds of flies emanate from the lagoons where Granjas Carroll discharges the fecal waste from its hog barns ... " Yup, we knew all that.
Pigs and other animals on factory farms are fed a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive in unsanitary, stressful conditions, increasing the chance that drug-resistant superbugs will develop. Hans-Gerhard Wagner, a senior officer with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, has called the intensive industrial farming of livestock (aka factory farming) an "opportunity for emerging disease."
The root of the problem is how filthy and cruel factory farming is. Please write to your members of Congress now. Urge them to call for an end to factory farming in the U.S. in order to prevent future outbreaks of animalborne diseases.
Stay loud!P.S. If you don't know what happens to animals on factory farms, or how they end up on your plate—please watch the video below and start making informed decisions.
Comments
Does anyone know where this is in the U.S. ? As in what states are being effected right now?
Somehow, this is a positive thing. Does anyone believe that? That people may start to majorly avoid pig products!
Posted by: Fala at April 28, 2009 3:35 PMThis is great! hahaha i think its all karma, people who treat animals like that deserve it.
Let's just hope that i don't get the desease too because i live in Mexico.
PETA is right, my mom even said so, she agreed.
Posted by: Melanie at April 28, 2009 6:02 PMI undestarnd that yu guys are trying to make a difference &&+ dhats great...
but have yu ever stopped to think that the people that are eating dha meat aren't always dha ones dhat kill dha animals??
I am a meat eater myself but it's not like go to farm pick out a pig, torture it, then kill it &&+ eat it..
I just simply by it from dha store. So all dha people dhat are catching the swine flu are mostly innocent people just like dha animals dhat yu guys ar trying to protect.
So don't say dhat dha people dhat have swine flu deserve to get it becaus dha truth of dha is that most if not all of them don't
I understand its to point out that factory farms cause the swine flu but I'm pretty sure anyone can catch this thing.
Its not that I'm trying to be witty or anything but I wouldn't call it revenge. If you want to call it anything I'd call it karms like Abril said or more to the point: irony.
Thats just my oppinion. We all got to die eventually and between this, the bird flu, and global warming I've now accepted that you can't sweat over possible death.
Posted by: Pepsi One is Fun at April 28, 2009 6:30 PMYeah! If they at least take proper care of these animals they won't get sick.
It's been reported a few day's ago that 20 people were found to have swine flu, but today the Gov of California (via @schwarzenegger) said 11 in California, with 5 of them being in SD, 1 in Sacramento, 2 in Marin, 5 in Imperial, but that sounds like 13.
I also read that there is Salmonella alert on alfalfa spouts.
Posted by: Tedd at April 28, 2009 6:31 PMRE: Fala
I think it's NY, CA, KS, TX and... Oklahoma?
Actually, they located the source of the virus and it wasn't a "gi-normous" pig farm (nice English by the way). It was a rural farm outside Mexico City if I recall correctly.
Still, I agree that factory farming is the root cause of all these animal borne illnesses mutating into deadly viruses.
Word of advice though: Use facts, cite sources rather than viewpoints and maybe people will take you more seriously.
Posted by: M at April 28, 2009 7:05 PMUmm I believe in California,Texas and New York.Im not exactly postitive about texas but for sure Calfornia and New York.
Posted by: Jasmine Soto at April 28, 2009 8:16 PMi hate wend ppl treat animals rly bad poor pig and other animals from the farm it star from mexico now is from usa 2 Puerto Rico p.s ppl hu r not veggie do not eat meat
Posted by: michelle at April 28, 2009 8:48 PMthere's always a silver lining to the bad shit...i guess now, maybe people will actually pay attention to factory farms and start to give a damn.
Posted by: cody at April 28, 2009 9:00 PMyou know how animals go insane in slaughter houses (like female breeding hogs in those tiny cages? i dont think their the only ones. slaughter house workers are known to be cruel an abusive and stuff and i think its because being so near to all that torture and suffering and doing it your self really screwed them up. It cant be good for anyone's mental health. Ozzy Osborne was a bipolar slaughter house worker and look at all the issues he has
Posted by: Marie at April 28, 2009 9:20 PMLook what has happened all because sick people do this to poor pigs just to slaughter them. It is disgusting and sad! I will be wrinting to congress. Now innocent people are being affected by this because cruel people do this to these innocent animals. It is sick and must be stopped! People don't see what is happening until it affects humans. Terrible!
Posted by: Alexandria P. at April 28, 2009 9:41 PMSome one finally knows what i think!!!!!
Posted by: Alessandra M. M. at April 28, 2009 11:36 PMUh, what did they all expect? You think you can eat pork and NOT get anything to backfire? Especially after the last few years of a heavy "Other white meat" campaign?! 1976 was a total fluke that never was and of course the media will say you can't get it by eating pork! Someone's gettin paid by the truckful!!! It's another virus. Let's all keep our body's pH up in the alkaline zone :) Yet one more reason I'm so glad to be vegan!
Posted by: Tambra at April 29, 2009 1:35 AMThis is soo right.
Those poor little piggies :'[
I just posted this on my myspace.
People need to realize where the swine flu is coming from!
it's true;
karma is a b****.
after waiting for a PETA blog post about this, it was better than expected.
goodjob, Rachel. :]
this article is really well done and proves a great point--until it destroys any and all credibility it has by saying "gi-normous". ugh.
Posted by: Danielle Pucciarella at April 29, 2009 1:55 PMyou are what you eat, dead meat.
Posted by: Lily at April 29, 2009 2:10 PMdoes anyone other than myself feel like the people who slaughter animals and cut their throats will turn out to be killers? If you can hang an animal, skin it and kill it like that, whats stopping you from doing it to a human? Watching this made me feel like I was watching a killer practice his/her 'technique' on an innocent animal.
Posted by: Ashleigh at April 29, 2009 2:46 PMwow...maybe this will no make people aware that the way they treat animals is wrong....hahah people in this world can be stupid sometimes. Thats why when you have to option to go vegan or vegetarian you should jump right on it.
:]
'Mad Cow', 'Foot & Mouth', 'Bird Flu' and now 'Swine Flu'...when will people ever learn?!
Posted by: Little_Lotte at April 29, 2009 3:31 PMits sad, many people may stop eating meat because of the flu, but i'm willing to bet 95% of those who do will eat meat again once this all clears up.
Posted by: Kyle S at April 29, 2009 3:37 PMYou are suffering from ignorance and being blinded by extremism.
This is nothing but dogma and self-fulfilling prophecy.
Sky is falling...
Makes me glad I stopped eating meat 8D
Posted by: Jessica at April 29, 2009 3:42 PMyup i know.
it's in texas, california, new york and the states around them.
How did this whole thing start? Did someone eat something that was infected? Or what?
Posted by: Mary at April 29, 2009 4:38 PMThis is wrong im lost for words
Posted by: Briana at April 29, 2009 4:52 PMIt is time to be vegan to save your life, family's
life, other people's life and our beautiful planet.FOR MORE URGENT DETAILS, LOG ON:
http://www.suprememastertv.com/SOS/
Posted by: Yeng Jen Chen at April 29, 2009 5:05 PMthis is ezactually why im a vegetarian..
Posted by: Kloe at April 29, 2009 6:01 PMI showed my friends this video, they felt horrible butthey didnt want to change their diet???
I'm vegan and have been for 4 1/2 years =]
OMG! I have been a vegetarian all my life but I guess I will try to keep off eggs and milk too.
Posted by: Lee Cixin Metta at April 30, 2009 3:08 AMI totally agree with this!
But it is also SPREADING because PEOPLE don't know how to wash their hands.
Yaayy I've been waiting for this! : D Now I have something to back up my argumanet : )
Posted by: grace at April 30, 2009 11:33 AMWhat people don't understand is that this disease is NOT spread by actually EATING pork.
Innocent people shouldn't be getting the brunt of this so called 'Karma' because other people torture pigs.
Officials are wondering why people in Mexico are dropping more than in the US. I think the obvious i obvious.
the slaughter that they do to these pigs are terrible nonetheless.
Posted by: Jacie at April 30, 2009 6:18 PMWe should stop factory farming, but swine flu is from human to human, not pig to human. It's not really from pigs.
My mom beleives that God does this sort of revenge all the time. She says that the tobacco industry is one of the revenges from native americans for what the europeans did to them.
Posted by: pinkdoggie7 at April 30, 2009 8:13 PMThe disease IS caused by EATING pork. If we didn't raise animals for slaughter, they wouldn't be living in these conditions that allow viruses to grow, spread and mutate. So if you are eating pork, you are responsible. Watch this clip from CNN and then STOP giving your money to this disgusting industry. If we stop supporting them, they won't exist. It's as simple as that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maRSazVoXo4
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I've been waiting all morning for you guys to post something about this. This is amazing, I'm linking it everywhere.
Posted by: Karen at April 28, 2009 2:24 PM