Swine Flu Is Just One Deadly Health Threat to Emerge From Filthy Factory Farms, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
April 27, 2009

Contact:
Nicole Matthews 757-622-7382

San Antonio -- A new PETA billboard that reads, "Meat Kills: Go Vegetarian," and that is emblazoned with the names of a host of deadly diseases linked to intensive farming systems--including swine flu and mad cow disease--will soon appear in San Antonio to remind people about the dangers of poorly regulated farms that supply the demand for meat. The ad follows reports that new cases of swine flu--which may already have killed more than 100 people in Mexico--have now been diagnosed in Guadalupe County.

Factory-farmed pigs suffer from chronic flu, and factory-farmed animals are invariably stressed and disease-ridden as a result of being crammed by the thousands into filthy sheds, which are a breeding ground for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses. Pigs and other animals on factory farms are fed a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive in these 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 an "opportunity for emerging disease."

Pregnant sows are confined to narrow metal stalls that are barely larger than their own bodies. They are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably. Pigs' tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and male pigs are castrated--all without painkillers.

"Everyone already knows that eating meat is linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancer, but factory farming also threatens the health of everyone on the planet by providing a breeding ground for influenza and other diseases that could end up being the death of us," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The best way to protect our health--individually and globally--is to go vegetarian."

For more information and to see the billboard, please visit PETA's blog.