Animal rights group outraged over bovine tail docking in NY

Using graphic video and descriptions to drive home their point, the
Mercy for Animals organization is calling on New York to stop farmers
from cutting off the tails of their cattle.

A bill that seeks to do just that has been introduced in the Assembly
by Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan.

At a press conference last Wednesday in Albany, Mercy for Animals, a
nonprofit animal rights organization, provided details about a recent
investigation by the organization into a dairy farm in upstate New
York.

--
full story:
http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-c-2010-02-01-65189.113122_Animal_rights_group_outraged_over_bovine_tail_docking_in_NY.html

Activists refused admission to North-East piggery

FORTY-FOUR animal activists from around Australia were yesterdayrefused admission to do what they described as a spot inspection of aNorth-East piggery. Animal activist and group spokeswoman Emma Haswell said that the groupwanted to perform a spot inspection on the piggery because of concernsfor the conditions under which the pigs were being kept. "We'd all had foot baths, had our temperatures taken and were wearingbio-suits to ensure we posed no risk to the animals," she said. "Animal Liberation NSW president Mark Pearson introduced himself tothe farmer who refused to give his permission for a spot inspection,saying we should return in 24 hours. "A lot of people don't realise the conditions these animals -considered by scientists to be as intelligent as a four-year-old child- live in. "They spend much of their lives in steel and concrete crates the sizeof their bodies." -- full story:http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/social-issues/activists-refused-admission-to-northeast-piggery/1693196.aspx

Pig Cruelty Shown At Swedish Farms

Swedish Radio News has published disturbing pictures taken at a pig farm by an animal rights group which show the sort of scenes of animal cruelty highlighted in Denmark back in May this year.

The Animal Rights Alliance say they have evidence of other farms carrying out flagrant breaches of Sweden's tough animal protection laws.

Listen to Kris Boswell's report
Swedes have always prided themselves that when it comes to meat, buying Swedish is best. Confidence has always been high in the stringent quality checks regarding the living conditions of animals raised at Swedish farms and their subsequent journey to the kitchen table.

Back in May this year Swedish Radio News broadcast a report that lambasted the cruel methods used to raise pigs in neighbouring Denmark. The critics said that Danish bacon might be cheap but at what cost to the animal?

Now though an animal rights group in Sweden has filmed disturbing images taken secretly at a pig farm which show the sort of scenes of animal cruelty highlighted in Denmark - cramped pig pens, lack of food, the animals covered in sores and even eating a dead pig on the floor.

Swedish radio news which was given the tape, says the film is genuine and received no comment when contacting the farmer involved, Lars Hultström, who is chairman of the association for Sweden's livestock farmers, Swedish meats.

And the group, The Animal Rights Alliance say their film is not an isolated incident, they've filmed at other farms in the country which also breach Sweden's tough animal rights laws.

Now the media is investigating Sweden's animal health inspection system which has recently changed authorities and is looking into just how many times livestock farms are inspected every year.

Before the beginning of the year, when the responsibility for the controls shifted from the municipality to the county council, Lars Hultsröm's farm was inspected every year.

"I think last time was January 2008 and it was I who carried out that inspection. There was nothing bad to report then,”said Monica Ängehult, responsible for these inspections in Flen municipality until 2009. The only complaint she ever remember having on the farm was a lack of straw.

Ängehult is since 2009 working with the same kind of inspections on county level and she says that the authority is planning a visit to the farm on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Lars Hultstöm has been unavailable for comments all Tuesday but on his mobile phone answer service he says that he is planning a "time-out due to recent events". He says that the time out will last until the investigation has been carried through- something that he welcomes.

"I have nothing to hide," he says on the recorded message.

Hultström's time-out is from his post as chairman of the Swedish Farmers Association, as well as from the company Swedish Animal Healthcare. The latter handles the veterinary care of the animals at the farm, and CEO Jan Åke Robertsson, told Swedish news agency TT that they had already been to the farm Tuesday morning.

After giving medical treatment to the sick animals, and putting down those seriously ill, there is nothing more that can be remarked on the health of the pigs. He also said that the lack of straw and the filth is due to a technical failure, but that this is not enough to excuse conditions on the farm.

According to Robertsson, the pigs were not in the regular pens, but in a treatment pen at the time they were filmed. The staff at the farm were right in isolating them, but conditions were terrible, he said.

"This is very serious. Every case like this is an unfortunate incident and reflects badly on all those that daily and hourly look after their pigs, upholding the standard so unique for Sweden," he said to TT.
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3260068

Barn Fires in Canada - New video shows terrorized pigs

Please take a moment to write and express your feelings about this.

Sensitive material and viewing

Dear all,

Every once in a while we all see something that makes us want to give up.

Footage and photos recently provided to CETFA showing images taken just after a massive pig barn fire here in Canada less than a month ago, have had that effect on us.

The footage clearly shows that before succumbing to smoke inhalation, the pigs are panicked, frantically running and piling in their pens.

The sows, completely squished into gestation stalls attempt to jump up out of their crates or squeeze through the bars. All of it is of course, futile.

What we were not prepared for though was to see that the abdomens of the pregnant sows rupture in the fire, spilling internal organs and uterusus. These uteruses contain piglets in various stages of development.

We all know there will be many more fires. The pig producers are saying so in media interviews. This amounts to premeditated cruelty, yet our government continues to turn a blind eye. While this information may make you want to give up; with no one protecting these animals, it's up to all of us. The pigs need a groundswell of voices speaking for them. Please watch our latest video, forward it and post it on your social networking sites.

We are asking that you contact your Member of the Legislative Assembly and Agriculture Minister Ritz to demand that fire code retrofits in the form of smoke detectors and sprinklers be required for all pig producers intending to continue in the business that are applying for federal government bail-out funds and loans.

Contact Minister Gerry Ritz here:

The Honourable Gerry Ritz
Minister of Agriculture
930 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1A 0C5
Phone: (613) 759-1000
Email: Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca

If you require any additional material - highresolution photos or footage, please let us know. This evidence needs to be seen by Canadians. Only then will they act.

Thank you.

- Twyla and the CETFA Team


Twyla Francois
Head of Investigation
Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals
www.cetfa.com

204-296-1375

Oprah promotes "happy meat"

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200908-omag-pig-farm



The Tastiest Bacon You'll Ever Eat

By Celia Barbour
You won't find more blissful pigs than the heirloom breeds roaming around Jen Small and Mike Yezzi's 150-acre farm in upstate New York. You won't find better bacon, either. And yes, there's a connection.
As the morning mist evaporates from the Battenkill River Valley and sunlight saturates the cool, blue shadows, the hills are alive with the sound of.oinks. Today 60 lucky pigs at Flying Pigs Farm are going to a new pasture. "They're so happy," says Jen Small, 42, who owns the farm with her husband, Mike Yezzi, 41. "You can feel it."
Their daughter, Jane, 5, is happy, too, because it's the first time she's been allowed to help with this chore. Her job? Herd 60 pigs, ten at a time, from the old pen into the new one. The "pens" are one- to four-acre sections of pasture and woodland, demarcated with portable fencing made of electrified wire. Pigs typically take a toll on the land they inhabit-trampling it bare, churning it into mud puddles, digging with their snouts for roots, minerals, and grubs. But here at Flying Pigs, a pretty 150-acre stretch of rolling fields and 19th-century farm buildings in Shushan, New York, the animals are relocated every three to eight weeks, depending on the season and their age. So, over time, their activities actually prove beneficial to the farm: They push back overgrowth from the encroaching woods, fertilize the ground with their manure, and till weeds into the soil. Meanwhile they have regular access to fresh grass and roots, and cool, clean mud wherever they go.
Jane carefully counts out ten pigs, sidling among them to separate this group from the rest, then gently shoos them down a six-foot-wide lane constructed of stakes and wire. As she walks behind them, she coos softly, "Come on, pigs; come on." And they do.
Jane weighs 45 pounds, the pigs five times as much. But she's not a bit nervous-and neither are her parents. In fact, so gentle and friendly are these pigs that, a few years back, a USDA inspector accused Jen and Mike of drugging them. "He said, 'They're too docile. I'm sending their livers out to be tested,'" recalls Jen. "Of course, there wasn't anything in those livers; not even antibiotics. It was an eye-opening day for that guy." He had never before encountered pigs raised with such kindness and care.


Jen and Mike wouldn't have it any other way. "We've always treated our pigs like pets," says Jen. "At first, it was naïveté: This is how you treat animals. Some of the older farmers in the area came by and sort of chuckled at us. I didn't care; I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of. It's the least we can do for the creatures that provide us with food."
Jen and Mike are part of a growing movement of farmers who are discovering that a humane, hands-on approach to raising farm animals isn't just wise, ethical, or environmentally sensitive (though it is all those things). It also results in a better product, one that conscientious consumers are willing to pay for. Beef and milk from grass-fed cattle and eggs from pastured chickens, for example, are higher in vitamins A and E and contain vastly superior ratios of omega fatty acids. Happier animals also mean more delicious meat; studies have shown that stress-from crowded, hostile conditions, overheating, lack of air-can decrease meat's juiciness. Feed also makes a difference: At Flying Pigs, the animals consume corn and soy, sheep's milk from a local cheesemaker, and apples from a local orchard, along with whatever they dig up from the dirt. And old-fashioned breeds are typically more flavorful. The heritage varieties at Flying Pigs-including Tamworths, Large Blacks, and Gloucestershire Old Spots-produce meat that is tender and infused with fat and a deep, savory porkiness.
"It's amazingly marbled," says chef Mike Anthony of New York City's Gramercy Tavern, one of about half a dozen top restaurants that order from Flying Pigs. "It has flavor and character. It's definitely not 'the other white meat.'"
Jen and Mike didn't set out to raise pork that would wow some of America's leading chefs. In fact, they never intended to be farmers at all. In 1996 they were living in Northampton, Massachusetts, studying for graduate degrees in public health, when they learned that this nearly 200-year-old farm had been bought by a real estate developer who intended to subdivide it into 14 homesites. "I couldn't stand to see another beautiful farm turned into tract houses," says Jen, who grew up spending summers down the road. So they bought it from him.
At first, they merely wanted a way to make a little extra income to offset their property taxes. "We had to do something to help the farm pay for itself," says Mike. "And we didn't have the time to milk cows. Someone told us, 'Get pigs. You get them in the spring, you get rid of them in the fall. Put up some fencing and you're set.'"
Little did they know what they were in for. In 2000 they raised three pigs-"generic pink ones from a farmer up the street," says Jen. The next year they acquired 14 heritage piglets, after Jen tracked down a farmer who was trying to preserve genetic lineages. These once-popular breeds were in danger of dying out because there was no market for them: They don't reproduce prolifically enough or grow quickly enough for modern, high-output farming, and their meat isn't lean enough for most American consumers.
As Jen soon discovered, tending even 14 pigs "becomes a full-time job whether you want it to or not." In those days, the couple did farm chores in the morning before going off to work-Mike at a nonprofit nursing home group, Jen as a development officer at Williams College. At the end of the day, they would toil by the light from the headlamps of their pickup truck: "We wouldn't even stop to eat supper," says Jen. Weekends were often back-to-back 15-hour days of labor.
They made mistakes at first, in part because there was nowhere to turn for guidance. "No one was doing what we're doing-raising pastured pigs outdoors," says Jen. "And the only books we could find were about raising a thousand pigs in confinement settings, or about how to keep two in your backyard." Eventually, Jen acquired a few useful books at auctions. They'd been written in the early 1900s.
Raising the pigs was only half the battle; Mike and Jen also needed to figure out where to have their pork processed (the industry term for slaughtering and butchering) and how to market the meat. Like small-scale farmers across America, they quickly discovered that independent USDA slaughterhouses were few and far between, most having gone out of business or been bought up by huge, industrial livestock farms. They were lucky to find a well-managed one an hour away; out west, ranchers sometimes have to travel 36 hours to reach a processor.
They also knew they'd have to create their own audience, one customer at a time. They had hoped to sell their pork at greenmarkets in nearby Saratoga Springs and Troy, but there was no space available, so they ventured four hours south, to New York City, rented stalls at the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza greenmarkets, and suddenly found themselves acting as de facto transporters, distributors, and salespeople of their meat, while also running the farm and holding down 9-to-5 office jobs. It helped that Flying Pigs' meat practically sold itself-to the chefs who trolled the markets looking for fresh, high-quality ingredients, and to food-savvy consumers. "We started getting a lot of positive feedback," says Jen. "We realized we were onto something."
In 2003 Jen became pregnant and the couple agreed that something had to give (Jane was born in 2004, and Charlie followed two years later). So Mike left his job to devote himself full-time to Flying Pigs. Jen now works part-time for American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving agricultural resources. "People see farming as this romantic dream job," says Jen. "They think, 'I'll just run off and be a farmer.' But it takes years to build a good customer base. We both had two full-time jobs for the first five years. That's the reality, folks. You build slowly. You work very hard."
One aspect of Jen and Mike's life is too hard for most nonfarmers even to contemplate. The idea of raising animals and then sending them off to slaughter often makes people squeamish. But consider the bigger picture. According to Paul Roberts in his book The End of Food, "The largest [pork slaughterhouse] in the world.in Tar Heel, North Carolina, processes 2,000 pigs an hour." And for these pigs, life is as mass-produced as death; they spend it squashed together indoors, in filthy conditions. In 1980 the average American hog farm was home to 101 animals. Today that average is 1,173. The "successful" family farm is now a CAFO-concentrated animal feeding operation-with a sewage output equivalent to that of a midsize city.
"Look, I understand and respect people who don't eat meat," says Jen, who as a teenager abandoned her dream of becoming a veterinarian when she realized that she'd have to euthanize animals. "But if you do, this is the kind you should eat."
Price can be a stumbling block for some people: Humanely raised meat can cost up to twice as much as the industrially produced stuff. But Jen has many customers who have found innovative ways to make it work, by including half as much meat in their weekly diets, or looking elsewhere in their household budgets to trim expenses. Still, in this cost-conscious economy, it's hard to see how a place like Flying Pigs manages to survive at all. "We get an income off our farm," says Jen with a shrug. "But it's not a way to get rich, by any means." Yet both Jen and Mike consider their farm successful, because success in this business may simply mean finding equilibrium: Flying Pigs has reached a size the couple can manage without compromising their values.
It's a Thursday afternoon, and Jen and Mike are getting ready for their weekly trip to the city. They eye the weather report anxiously because a rainy weekend means a deserted market where they may not sell enough even to cover the cost of the trip. After supper they'll tuck their children into bed, say goodnight to the babysitter and farmhands, then climb into the truck and set off, arriving well after midnight. All day Friday while Jen works the greenmarket, Mike will make deliveries to restaurants. Saturday they'll work two markets, then load their truck with vegetables, bread, and cheese they've traded with fellow vendors in exchange for unsold meat. By the time they pull into their driveway, another 450 miles on their odometer, their children will be fast asleep.
Yet Jane and Charlie are never far from Jen's thoughts. "I don't want my kids to be as ignorant as I was about where food comes from," she says. "And I hope they won't have to live in a country where the farmland has been paved over. Once it's gone, it's gone; you don't get it back."
She adds, "I don't want my kids turning to me in 20 years and saying, 'Where were you? What were you doing?' I know it's a cliché, but I don't want to be part of the problem, I want to be part of the solution. I want to do something that outlasts me."
Full story here:http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200908-omag-pig-farm

EU UPGRADES STUNNING,SLAUGHTER METHODS FOR ANIMALS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8571035

LUXEMBOURG, June 22 (Reuters) - Slaughterhouses across the European
Union will have to change the way they stun and kill millions of cattle,
pigs and poultry after farm ministers agreed on Monday to tighten the
rules and improve animal protection. Every year, nearly 360 million
pigs, sheep, goats and cattle and several billion turkeys and chickens
are killed in the EU for their meat. A further 25 million animals are
killed for fur and hatcheries also kill around 330 million day-old-chicks.

Welfare and safety rules governing how this may be done date from 1993
and, experts say, are in serious need of an overhaul.

From January 2013, stunning and killing criteria for slaughterhouses
will be updated, and the general parameters for using electricity to
knock out animals, for example, or gas for birds, more concretely
defined than now.
Slaughterhouses will also have to appoint a specific person responsible
for animal welfare and make sure all staff are properly trained and
certified. The updated rules will not ban any major method of stunning,
although the use of certain techniques will be limited.

Carbon dioxide for pigs and poultry, for example, may still be used
despite some scientists' reservations, and using waterbath stunners for
poultry will remain permitted -- to the annoyance of the Dutch, who
wanted a ban.
Slaughterhouse operators will see their responsibilities increase,
regularly monitoring the efficiency of stunning techniques to ensure
animals do not "wake up".

"We have a duty to take care of animals. Their welfare is crucial, not
only for ethical reasons but also to ensure animal health and the
quality of food," EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said in a
statement.
The agreement would make "a real difference to the way animals are
treated at the time of slaughter", she said, adding that distress would
be minimised in the slaughtering process. (Reporting by Jeremy Smith)

ANIMAL USE AND ABUSE STATISTICS:SHOCKING,HIDEOUS,GROTESQUE NUMBER

Animal Use and Abuse Statistics: The Shocking Numbers
by Stephanie Ernst
categories: Activism and Actions, Animals in Entertainment, Companion Animals, Environment and Global Warming, Farm Animals, Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals
Published October 05, 2008 @ 07:10AM PT
Listed here are statistics in the following categories: Animals Used as Food, Animal Agriculture and Environment, Animal Testing, Companion Animals, Animals in Human Entertainment, Fur, Wildlife, and Activism.
Animals Used as Food
10 Billion, 27 Million, and 19,000:
Every year, 10 billion domesticated land animals are slaughtered for food in the United States—27 million each day and 19,000 every minute.
50 Billion and 1,680:Worldwide, the yearly slaughter count is more than 50 billion. Every second, 1,680 animals are killed for food.Most farmed animals are killed when they are barely adolescents or even younger, such as the "broiler" chickens raised for meat who are slaughtered at only 6–7 weeks old.
250 Million Chicks:The U.S. egg industry suffocates, gases, or grinds up alive 250 million male chicks each year; they are not profitable because they will never produce eggs and are not bred to grow at an unnatural speed like broiler chickens.
5.5 Million Calves:The 4.5 million calves in Europe and 1 million calves in the United States annually destined to become veal are forcibly pulled away from their mothers—dairy cows—within hours, or at most 1–2 days, of birth. The milk produced naturally by the mother's body for her calf, who normally would suckle for 6 to 12 months, is to be taken for sale to humans, so the calf is fed nutritionally deficient formula. His movement is severely restricted, to give his flesh the texture and color desired by human consumers.
90 Percent of Soybeans and 80 Percent of Corn: More than 90 percent of soybean meal grown in the United States is used to feed animals being raised for human food; these animals also consume 80 percent of corn grown in the United States.
Animal Agriculture and Environment
70 Percent of Land: In the Amazon, 70 percent of once-forested land is now used for grazing cattle.
18 Percent of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions—more than all the planes, trains, ships, and automobiles in the world combined. Animal agriculture is responsible for an astonishing 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions (a gas with a global warming potential [GWP] 296 times that of CO2), 37 percent of methane (GWP 23 times that of CO2), and 9 percent of CO2.
37 Percent of Pesticides and 50 Percent of Antibiotics: Animal agriculture uses 37 percent of all pesticides and 50 percent of antibiotics and contributes enormously to water pollution, endangering human and nonhuman animal health and life.
Animal Testing
25-100 Million Animals: More than 25 million vertebrate animals are used in testing in the United States each year—including monkeys, chimpanzees, beagles and other dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, birds, farm animals, and still other sentient beings. After the experiments conclude, essentially all of the animals who have survived the research are killed. When invertebrate animals are considered, the estimated number rises to as high as 100 million.
50 Drugs: Despite all this suffering in the name of determining safety for humans, as of 2002, more than 50 drugs tested on animals and approved by the FDA as safe had been taken off the market or relabeled because they had caused serious illnesses and death in humans. The FDA itself estimated in 2006 that 92 percent of drugs that pass animal testing fail in human clinical trials.
Companion Animals
6 to 8 Million Dogs and Cats: Every year, 6 to 8 million dogs and cats enter shelters, and 3 to 4 million shelter dogs and cats are killed.
80 Percent of Puppies: Most pet store puppies (and 80% of the American Kennel Club's business) come from puppy mills, mass-breeding operations in which ill, suffering dogs are kept in deplorable conditions. They breed between 2 and 4 million puppies each year.
Examples of Animals in Human Entertainment
7,600 Puppies and 11,400 Young or Adult Dogs: In 2000 approximately 7,600 greyhound puppies deemed not fast enough to race were killed, as were an estimated 11,400 "retired" dogs. Retired greyhounds, who suffer greatly as racers, may also be sold to research labs or used to breed future litters.
100 Percent of Major Circuses: Every major circus featuring animals has been cited for violations of the minimal standards of care under the Animal Welfare Act. The very nature of traveling circuses means that beyond cruel, highly abusive training and fear-induced performances, the elephants and other animals must also endure countless hours and days confined in boxcars and trailers.
Fur
350,000 Baby Seals: In 2006 more than 350,000 baby seals were killed, mostly by clubbing, in the annual Canadian seal hunt; 98 percent of the slaughtered harp seals were less than 3 months old. Forty-two percent of the seals in a 2001 study by veterinarians were found to be skinned while alive and conscious.
30 Million: More than 30 million mink, foxes, chinchillas, and other animals are killed on fur farms each year, by such methods as electrocution and poisoning. Neither fur farms nor the methods by which trapped animals can be killed are regulated by any U.S. laws.
2 Million Dogs and Cats: Some fur trims and clothes labeled as fake or as from another animal are actually made from dog and cat fur exported by China, where the more than 2 million dogs and cats per year killed for fur suffer unspeakable cruelties, including sometimes the documented horror of being skinned alive.
Wildlife
3,000 Gorillas and 4,000 Chimpanzees: Each year, roughly 3,000 gorillas, 4,000 chimpanzees, and hundreds of bonobos are killed for bushmeat in Africa—a devastating practice enabled and encouraged by the logging industry. Orphaned young usually die as well.
2 Million Wild Animals: The federal Wildlife Services agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, kills 2 million wild animals per year (2.4 million in 2007), including endangered species, at the request of cattle ranchers, hunters, and municipalities and uses such tactics as poisoning, shooting, and even beheading and burning alive. The poisoning method in particular results in the indiscriminate killing of many "non-target" individuals and species.
300,000 Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises: The global fishing industry's many problems include the devastating issue of bycatch: yearly, billions of ocean animals are caught unintentionally and thrown back, dead or dying, including 100 million sharks and rays; approximately 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises; 250,000 endangered turtles; and hundreds of thousands of birds. Shrimp fisheries are perhaps the worst offenders, with commonly more than 80 percent bycatch. Numerous species are facing extinction because of fishing and bycatch.
Activism
Zero: In direct action tactics to save animals in the United States, no human being has ever been killed or harmed.

AS SWINE FLU DECLARED A PANDEMIC,DOCTORS OFFER VEGEYATIAN STARTER KIT

Hog Industry Bears Responsibility for Disease; Meatless Diets Could Help Prevent Development of Novel Influenza Viruses
WASHINGTON—The World Health Organization’s announcement that swine influenza is now officially a pandemic is prompting the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to offer a free 16-page Vegetarian Starter Kit to worried consumers. WHO’s pandemic designation comes after swine flu has reached 74 countries and infected nearly 30,000 people.
“There would be no swine flu pandemic without pig farms,” says PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D. “These huge pig facilities are unsanitary, inhumane, and extremely dangerous to human health. The federal government should take action against these flu factories, but consumers can also reduce the risk of new influenza viruses by eating meatless meals.”
Hog producers have tried to distance themselves from culpability for the swine flu outbreak. But crowded pig farms offer a breeding ground for new strains of influenza, according to the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. One-third to one-half of pigs on modern farms have antibody evidence of influenza, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Five years ago, the American Public Health Association called for a moratorium on new factory farms because these facilities pose grave public health risks. Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production cited numerous public health issues associated with factory farms and recommended the phaseout of intensive confinement on farms.
A meatless diet helps eliminate the farms that breed infectious disease. Vegetarian eating habits also eliminate animal fat and cholesterol, which have been linked to heart disease, one of America’s top killers.
PCRM’s Vegetarian Starter Kit offers a three-step plan for moving to a healthier diet and is packed with recipes, nutrition information, and cooking tips. Research has shown that vegetarians are slimmer than meat-eaters and have less risk of heart disease, some cancers, and diabetes. Consumers can request a free copy of the Vegetarian Starter Kit at www.GoVegetarian.org.
For more information or an interview with a PCRM expert, contact Patrick Sullivan at 510-834-8680 or psullivan@pcrm.org.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

Take Action for Egypt's Pigs

Thank you so much for taking action to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to stop the horrific killing of pigs. After weeks of campaigning and a storm of protest from across the globe, it appeared that the "culling" had finally been stopped. However, in response to the first confirmed case of the H1N1 virus, the slaughter will be resumed imminently. We want to send an unequivocal message to the Egyptian authorities to underline the potential damage to the country's tourism industry if they fail to take action to stop the cruel slaughter and ensure an atrocity of this kind never happens again. Take action
We're co-ordinating our networks across the world to send a mock visa application to20their country's Egyptian Consulate, stating that they won't be visiting the country until proper animal welfare laws are adopted and enforced and international standards adhered to. The attention which we and other animal welfare organisations have drawn to this issue has already tarnished Egypt's reputation and many people have struck the country from their list of potential holiday destinations. Over the past two weeks we have been putting pressure on the Egyptian Ambassador, Prime Minister and Tourism Minister, as well as intergovernmental organisations. We now want to pursue another channel of influence to get our message across. By flooding Egyptian consulates across the world with fake visa applications - which rather than the "applicant's" personal details contains a message to the tourist authorities stating why we do not intend to visit the country - we hope that they will take this threat to their economy seriously, and bring their influence to bear on the Egyptian government.We are doing this to press the Egyptian government to adopt animal welfare legislation which might have prevented this atrocity from ever taking place. Around 160,000 pigs are thought to have been killed, many in the most appalling ways: tipped hundreds at a time into open-topped lorries, covered in caustic chemicals or stabbed through the heart with iron bars.We need to ensure that cruelty of this kind can never happen again:Please take a couple of minutes to print off the "application" (180KB PDF) then sign and post it to the Egyptian Consulate at the address on the top of the form. Please be assured that in sending this message to the Egyptian authorities, you will not be compromising your relationship with the country or contravening any laws. No personal details are included on the form and you need not even use your own signature. Thank you once again for all your support.

COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING-ACTION ALERT!

Thank you for lobbying the Egyptian Ambassador about the appalling pig cull in Egypt. To date over 3075 people have taken part but in spite of all our efforts, the killing continues. This week we are lobbying the Chief Veterinary Officer of Egypt at the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) meeting in Paris and urging the OIE to put pressure on him too.

If pleas for kindness don't work, then talk of tourists avoiding Egypt may be more successful.

Of some 11 million tourists visiting Egypt every year, the majority are from Europe. In 2007, over a million British people visited Egypt. Clearly tourism is hugely important to the Egyptian economy.

Please write to the Minister of Tourism stating that you will avoid taking holidays in Egypt and ask your friends and family to do the same until the Egyptian Government treats animals with respect and abides by internationally agreed animal welfare standards.

Please email the Egyptian Minister of Tourism HERE.

Please help us increase the pressure by making a donation today.

Your support will allow our team of experts to continue pushing, lobbying and campaigning to end this cruelty, once and for all. In the longer term, we are working with our local partners in Egypt to implement a change to the law that would help ensure that this kind of senseless brutality does not happen again.

But we can only do this with your support.

We receive no government funding and rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters to change the lives of millions of animals.

Please, consider making a donation today>>

With thanks and all best wishes,

Philip Lymbery
Chief Executive, Compassion in World Farming

Take action For Egyptian Pigs!From Animal Voices

Dear Friends
First the good news! Please see how a town of passionate people is going meat-free one day a week
Click here .Another piece of good news (thank you for your patience in this regard), you will soon be getting an Animal Voice in hard copy with the latest progress that we have made over the last six months - and it's been a hectic six months! The bad news needs your voice. Please read on: Compassion in World Farming Headquarters in Britian has alerted authorities around the world to the unthinkably brutal mass killing of pigs that is taking place in Egypt.Please express your revulsion at what is happening, for the attention of the Egyptian Ambassador to South Africa,,on egyptemb@global. co.za You could say:For the Attention of the Egyptian Ambassador to South AfricaPlease see: Al-Masry Al-Youm: Pigs Culled through Chemical Substances We wish to express our revulsion at the unconscionable brutality currently being meted out to pigs in Egypt. It brings absolute sorrow and torment to us, as South Africans. Signed...... The mass killing of pigs in Egypt is a response to the swine flu pandemic that now records 7520 confirmed cases worldwide. Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming, has written to Egyptian authorities, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the European Commission, calling for action to be taken to stop the killing whereby truckloads of pigs are sprinkled with chemicals causing excruciating pain and death that takes up to about 40 minutes. They are then dumped in mass graves. The is despite the fact that the OIE has counselled against the culling of pigs on the grounds that this will not safeguard public or animal health in the face of the current A/H1N1 Influenza situation.Below is the English version of media coverage by Egyptian media outlet, Almasry-alyoum. com and the horrific footage can be viewed at the following links:http://helpinganimalsworldwide.blogspot.com/2009/05/video-of-egyptian-pig-slaughter.html
http://www.youtube.com/almasryalyoum and http://www.vimeo.com/almasryalyoum .
With appreciation for your help in this matter,LouiseLouise van der MerweSouth African Representative: Compassion in World Farming
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Please forward this appeal to others.
Please support our efforts on behalf of South Africa's farmed animals:Our bank details are: The Humane Education Trust, Account No. 9094070046, ABSA Bank, Branch No. 334 712
With best wishes, Louise van der MerweSA Representative: Compassion in World FarmingEditor: Animal VoiceManaging Trustee: The Humane Education TrustCEO: Humane Education PublishersTel./Fax +27 21 852 8160http://www.het.org.za/ http://www.animal-voice.org/
Animal Voice is a magazine published by the Humane Education Trust in South Africa. The HET is an organisation dedicated to increasing our compassionate footprint. Animal voice is also the official mouthpiece in South Africa of Compassion in World Farming.
Our website can be found at http://www.animal-voice.org/
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ANIMAL VISUALS-HOW MANY ANIMALS ARE BEING SLAUGHTERED EVERY MINUTE?

VIDEO OF THE EGYPTIAN PIG SLAUGHTER

CAIRO (AFP) — A YouTube video clip showing pigs being culled in Egypt as part of swine flu measures has caused outrage at the apparent barbarity of the method of slaughtering the animals.

The clip posted by independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom includes gory images of pigs being beaten with iron bars, piglets being stabbed and animals being kicked alive into bulldozer buckets.

Since going on line on YouTube this weekend, the clip has sparked horrified reactions from Muslims and from the Christian Copt community, who are the main rearers of pigs in Egypt as Muslims do not eat pork.

Although no case of A(H1N1) swine flu has yet been detected on its territory, Egypt is the only country in the world to have decided to kill all its pigs, estimated to have numbered around 250,000 before the cull began.

MAINE BECOMES SIXTH US STATE TO BAN EXTREME CONFINEMENT!

The Humane Society of the United States



Veal producers often tether calves in crates where they can barely move. Maine will prohibit this.
Maine Governor John Baldacci signed landmark legislation preventing two controversial factory farm confinement methods.
Effective January 1, 2011, the new law will prohibit gestation crates and veal crates—individual cages that virtually immobilize breeding pigs and veal calves for nearly their entire lives.
LD 1021 was sponsored by Senator John Nutting (D-Androscoggin County), Senate Chair of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. It passed the committee and both chambers unanimously.
The Humane Society of the United States strongly backed the legislation.
"It's cruel and inhumane to confine animals in cages barely larger than their own bodies for months on end," said Katie Lisnik, Maine state director of The HSUS.
"We're grateful to Senator Nutting for his humane leadership on this important legislation and hope its enactment sends a message to other states that they should follow suit."
A Wave of Progress
Californians overwhelmingly passed a similar measure, The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, by ballot initiative last fall.
In addition to California, four other states have passed similar reforms, including Colorado, Florida, Arizona and Oregon.
Major national retailers like Safeway and Burger King are increasingly phasing in crate-free and cage-free products due to consumer demand. And the top veal and pork producers in the country—such as Smithfield Foods, Strauss Veal and Marcho Farms—have begun to phase out crates and move toward group housing systems for pigs and calves.

HSUS USING LAW SIGNED BY LINCOLN TO SUE SLAUGHTERHOUSES

A Day of Reckoning
I have written many times about the downed animal abuse scandal at the now-shuttered Hallmark/Westland Meat Company in Chino, Calif. An HSUS undercover investigator documented appalling abuses of downed dairy cows, and a series of actions followed: the largest recall of beef in the nation’s history, the conviction of two workers for animal cruelty, the closure of the Hallmark plant, and the issuance of new, upgraded federal regulations banning the slaughter of downer cattle.
© The HSUS
Last week, a new chapter of this story unfolded when a federal district court in Los Angeles unsealed a major False Claims Act lawsuit filed by The HSUS against the owners of Hallmark/Westland. The suit—recently joined by the U.S. Department of Justice—seeks to recover more than $150 million in taxpayer money spent on potentially tainted ground beef by the USDA and shipped to school lunch programs in dozens of states.
I asked Jonathan Lovvorn, our vice president and chief counsel for Animal Protection Litigation and Research, to offer his observations about this case, and what it means for the hundreds of other slaughterhouses that operate under federal contracts requiring suppliers to ensure the humane treatment of animals at their facilities.
At the height of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed an obscure law designed to crack down on the sale of sick and injured horses and mules to the Army by unscrupulous defense contractors.
The statute—known as the False Claims Act—empowers private citizens with knowledge of fraud against the U.S. government to bring a lawsuit, called a qui tam suit, on behalf of the United States to recover significant civil penalties and treble damages. Such whistleblowers are statutorily entitled to 25 percent of the total recovery—a powerful incentive for workers to blow the whistle on government fraud.
This Civil War era statute came full circle last week when The HSUS’s lawsuit against Hallmark/Westland for selling meat from sick and injured dairy cows was unsealed by the federal court in Los Angeles. After a hiatus of nearly 150 years, the False Claims Act is once again being applied to animals too sick or injured to walk.
The suit fills an important gap in the story of the Hallmark/Westland downed animal abuse scandal. Close observers of the events surrounding Hallmark know all too well that despite all the recalls, criminal prosecutions, and policy reforms enacted in the wake of the inexcusable events in Chino last year, a few prominent players have yet to see their day of reckoning—the owners.
This is not uncommon in a factory farm abuse case. In a typical case—and there have been dozens over the last five years—the owners of facilities caught on tape abusing animals rapidly and effectively shift all responsibility for such abuses to low-level employees—many of whom end up the target of criminal prosecution for abuses undertaken at the direction of company management.
This was the certainly the case at Hallmark. Although two workers were prosecuted and convicted of criminal animal cruelty, the actual owners of Hallmark/Westland faced no criminal charges at all, and, despite the closure and sale of the company, faced no individual financial liability whatsoever for the gross abuse of animals at their facility.
This all changed last week. After more than a year of waiting, The HSUS’s False Claims Act against the owners of Hallmark/Westland was finally unsealed, and is now moving forward in federal court in Los Angeles.
What’s more, last Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has elected to intervene in the case and join The HSUS in seeking to hold the owners of this now infamous operation accountable. The Department of Justice intervenes in less than 25 percent of all Qui Tam actions, and this is the first time the powerful statute has ever been deployed against the mistreatment of farm animals.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of this statutory hammer for securing treble damages against slaughterhouse operators like Hallmark/Westland who routinely ignore the humane handling requirements of their federal contracts. With virtually no state or federal humane law enforcement for farm animals, factory farmers have had little to fear when their actions have resulted in appalling abuses of animals.
That all could change with the precedent set in this case. The risk of personal liability for treble damages—coupled with the promise of multi-million dollar bounties for workers that blow the whistle on animal abuse—could serve as a powerful deterrent for slaughterhouse owners operating in an area with woefully insufficient federal humane law enforcement.
The meat industry should take notice that if they defraud the American taxpayers by abusing animals, there will be serious consequences. And the Department of Justice should be commended for joining The HSUS in seeking to ensure that unscrupulous federal meat suppliers do not profit from the gross and systematic mistreatment of animals in violation of federal law.
Posted by Wayne Pacelle on 07 May 2009

Are Animals On Their Way To Becoming A Threat For Humanity?

The recent outbreak of a fast-spreading, contagious disease that istransmitted from pigs to humans, which has so far killed more than 160in Mexico, has raised a question in minds over whether animals arebecoming a potential threat to mankind....Turkish officials have installed thermal cameras in internationalterminals at airports to measure the temperatures of incominginternational passengers as a precaution against swine flu. Theefficacy of the measures at hand is, however, highly disputed.
As swine flu is not the only kind of disease transmitted to humans byanimals, Turkish veterinarians are also discussing whether animals arebecoming a potential threat to humanity.
Professor Tahsin Yeşildere, the head of the İstanbul Chamber ofVeterinary Surgeons (İVHO), said there has been an increase in thenumber of diseases transmitted to humans by animals in recent years.
"According to the WHO, there are around 225 zoonotic diseases [adisease of animals that can be transmitted to humans under naturalconditions]. We see some of these diseases in Turkey as well. Theyhave become more fatal in recent years for a number of reasons, amongwhich we can cite global warming and the lack of necessary measures tocontrol them," he stated.
Several countries other than Turkey have been struggling against anumber of diseases transmitted to man by animals. Among these arebovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is commonly known asMad-Cow Disease (MCD) and is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease incattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord;avian influenza, also known as bird flu; Crimean-Congo hemorrhagicfever (CCHF), a viral disease carried by certain species of ticks; andthe Hanta virus, which is carried by rodents and causes epidemichemorrhagic fever and severe respiratory infections in humans....03 May 2009, SundayBETÜL AKKAYA DEMİRBAŞ İSTANBUL
--full story:http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=174190

ACTION ALERT FROM VIVA!-SWINE FLU

Swine Flu: Urgent Call to Action!
Petition the Government for Enquiry into Factory Farming

Dear Viva! Friend

This is a one-off email asking for your urgent help. As you know, the world is on the edge of a pandemic. ‘Swine flu’ has the potential to kill many people if containment measures do not work and the situation gets worse. The finger of blame for this crisis is pointing increasingly to intensive farming as the culprit.

Viva! have long campaigned against the endemic abuse of farmed animals in factory farming. Now, the deplorable way we treat them – and widespread use of antibiotics – is having a direct effect on our own health. Whilst we continue to campaign to show that vegetarianism and veganism is the answer to many of the problems we face today - we must also force factory farming back onto the agenda. For the sake of the animals - and for the sake of ourselves.

Please join our call for an urgent enquiry into intensive farming in Britain and its effect on human health.

Contact Alan Johnson (Secretary of State for Health)
Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP
Department of Health
Richmond House, 79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
0207 219 5856 - Fax
johnsona@parliament.uk
Send the following email or letter (personalise it for even greater effect):

“Dear Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP

In light of the worldwide crisis over ‘swine flu’ I urgently call on the Government to launch an enquiry into intensive methods of farming and their role in spreading disease.

In Mexico, intensive pig farming is big business, with tens of thousands of pigs on a single factory farm. But it’s not just Mexico! Almost all the nine million pigs we kill each year in the UK are farmed intensively; kept in cramped, often filthy conditions. Intensive farming is wholly unnatural and produces animals whose immune systems are shot to pieces. Diseases spread like wildfire and there is a kind of Petri dish ‘pick and mix’ for bacteria and viruses that can swap genetic material and produce entirely new strains.

As the finger is increasingly pointing towards intensive farming as the source of this current outbreak, I urge the Government to take this threat seriously. Please let me know what measures you will take to investigate the role of intensive farming of animals – and the widespread use of antibiotics in farming – in the spread of emerging infectious diseases.

Yours faithfully”

Find out more about Viva!’s campaigns for British pigs here: http://www.piggles.org.uk

Yours for the animals

Justin Kerswell
Viva! campaigns manager

Smithfield, world's largest pig murdering operation, implicated in Mexican illness

From: PeaceNews



[B] “Granjas Carroll, causa de epidemia en La Gloria,” declared a headline in the Vera Cruz-based paper La Marcha. [/B]
[url]http://www.achangeinthewind.com/2009/04/mexican-media-links-swine-flu-outbreak-to-factory-hog-plant.html[/url]
[url]http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield[/url]
[B]Mexican and US officials muzzle Vera Cruz citizen complaints[/B]
[url]http://www.dailygrail.com/node/7481[/url]
[B]Smithfield's corporate Mexican website: red blood near the white mtn. snows[/B]
[url]http://www.granjascarroll.com/[/url]
(Wall St seems to lie less than the US Govt as shares on Smithfield dropped)
[B]5000 sick pigs in Guererro, Mexico destroyed before sent to slaughterhouse[/B]
[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/mexican-lawmaker-factory_b_191579.html[/url]
[B]Capitalism and Public Health[/B] (Smithfield etc.)
[url]http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/04/428731.html[/url]
[B]Present US Govt Pandora Box Opening (Revo's link)[/B]
[url]http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/customer_service/email_reporter.htm?writer=Justin[/url] M. Palk
[B]Past US Govt Bioterror[/B]
[url]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/10/28/MN50317.DTL&type=printable[/url]
[B]Glaxo Makes Relenza, an alleged anti flu vaccine about which scientist has questions [/B]
[url]http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/relenza/[/url]
[B]Health Canada probes Glaxo's Relenza (alleged antiflu drug) after children die[/B]
[url]http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/2873[/url]
[B]Roche before this last week was faced with slumping Tamiflu sales and offered a special package deal[/B]
[url]http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2008/06/27/drug_maker_offers_deal_on_tamiflu_to_businesses/[/url]
[B]Smithfield denies it caused Mexican deaths[/B]
[url]http://investors.smithfieldfoods.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=379761[/url]

[img]http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/c/ca/Mexicandoom.jpg[/img]
[I][B]One has nothing to fear from little piglets if one does not eat their cadaver pieces. Time to outlaw pig
concentration camps[/B][/I]



Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carrol, raise (euphemism for murder) 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site-a level nearly equal to Smithfield’s total U.S. hog production.

On Friday, the U.S. disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance published a timeline of the outbreak containing this nugget, dated April 6 (major tip of the hat to Paula Hay, who alerted me to the Smithfield link on the Comfood listserv and has written about it on her blog, Peak Oil Entrepreneur):


Smithfield shares drop on worries about swine flu
Monday, April 27, 2009, 9:15 PM EDT
The Associated Press
[url]www.pbs.org[/url]

[url]http://www.pbs.org/search/search_programsaz.html[/url]

[I][B](Smithfield operates the biggest most confining pig concentration camps in the US..
camps which have filled the Atlantic with pfiesteria from trillions of gallons of unprocessed
pig waste. Pigs fight harder than any other animal against their human killers.)[/B][/I]

Pork processor (euphemism for pig murderer) Smithfield Foods Inc.'s shares fell Monday as investors worried about how consumers would respond to the swine flu outbreak despite Mexican officials stating that no infected pigs have been found anywhere in Mexico.

Investors pummeled Smithfield's shares, even though the largest U.S. pork producer said it has "no reason to believe that the virus is in any way connected to its operations in Mexico" and U.S. health officials have said people cannot contract the disease from eating pork or pork products.

Smithfield took a large share of the pain visited on meat companies Monday, when its shares dropped more than 12 percent, or $1.28, to $9.04, as investors fretted that consumers worried about the disease would avoid buying pork.

Christopher Shanahan, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said the swine flu outbreak would compound problems for the pork market, which was already one of the weakest in the food industry.

Higher grain prices, soft demand and a product glut made 2008 one of the weakest years for the industry, hitting major companies like Smithfield and Tyson Foods Inc. hard.

[B]Smithfield, based in Smithfield, Va., has hog production operations in the U.S., Poland and Romania, as well as 50 percent stakes in Mexican operations Granjas Carroll de Mexico and Agroindustrial del Noroeste.[/B]

Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said tests now show that a 4-year-old boy contracted swine flu in Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm, at least two weeks before the first death confirmed by the Mexican government. The farm is run by Granjas Carroll de Mexico.

But Mexico's Agriculture Department said Monday that its inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico.

Smithfield spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in its swine herd or its employees working at its joint ventures anywhere in Mexico.

But local residents are convinced they were sickened by air and water contamination from pig waste.

Smithfield said it is working with Mexican officials who are investigating the possible sources of the outbreak.

In August 2007, animal and food safety officials said Smithfield slaughtered about 36,000 pigs at farms in Romania after outbreaks of swine fever among the animals at three of its 33 farms there. Smithfield also said it voluntarily shut down a red meat plant in Poland for 10 days during the first quarter of fiscal 2006 and recalled some previously shipped product after media reports on food safety.

[I]US officials, protective of the billionaire Don Tyson, Smithfield,
and other billionaires involved in pig murder, have said swine flu cannot
be contacted by eating the cadavers of murdered pigs!!


Is it not interesting that Poland Romania and Mexico have Smithfield
owned pig slaughter operations? Poland and Romania are 2 countries
in which the CIA had illegal prisons in which they tortured inmates.[/I]


Update
Update April 28 09

As Michael O'Boyle reported on national radio on April 28 that a large pig factory farm
in Vera Cruz Mexico in being investigated as a possible source of the deaths, not a single govt. official
this poster has heard (Obama Napolitano CDC FDA etc.is warning against animal cadaver
consumption or the consumption of animal products.
(Smithfield, largest pig murdering operation in the US, has operations in Romania, Poland,
and half shares in Mexico pig murdering operations.)
[url]http://www.pbs.org/nbr/headlines/Smi...Flu/index.html[/url]
(Is it not interesting that Poland and Romania, 2 European countries with secret CIA
torture jails, also have connections to American companies involved in mass animal slaughter.)

1. The Rumsfeld Roche connection Donald Rumsfeld former CEO of pharmaceutical company
Searle is heavily invested in Gilead, N American distributor of Tamiflu which controls
90% of the world's aniseed trees, and whose Tamiflu has been ineffectual in treating
the previous scam, avian flu.
2. There have been only 20 deaths confirmed to be swine flu
.. these are in Mexico. Who does the confirming? a World Health Organization laboratory
situated in Australia.
3. No one has been hospitalized in the US, yet a health emergency
has been declared
4. This power grab by the US military medical pharma industrial complex
(HHS, FDA, CDC, Homeland Security!, state 'health' departments) is meant for 3 reasons
a. increased power to the warwaging centralized govt.
b. profits for Roche and other marketers of alleged vaccines
c. pressure on the Senate to put 870 million dollars for 'pandemic
preparedness' into the federal budget.
5. NPR this morning had TWO representatives from the billionaire cartel mouth organ:
the Council on Foreign Relations.
6. NO socialist country has been involved in the disinformation scam.
Drug producing Israel, animal genocide New Zealand, Canada, the US, Scotland and Mexico
7. The 1 million doses of the ineffectual Tamiflu held by the Mexican govt. cost 100 million
dollars.
8. When community opposition to the USDA's bioterror lab, Plum Island, was shut down in NY
3 others opened in Texas and 1 elsewhere.