Livestock industry threatens human existence

[Oscar]

Livestock industry threatens human existence

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Brandon Sun April 11, 2002

Re: "Wishing won’t make pandemic go away" (Winnipeg Free Press, March 30.)

The governments of Manitoba and Canada are investing $680,900 to support two large projects aimed at protecting animal health and managing diseases in the provincial pork industry.

No apologies for being cynical, as I am continually dismayed in the face of capital and right-wing corporate power and their philosophy. Our governments keep spending our tax dollars, dealing with the symptoms of disease, instead of recognizing and addressing the cause.

Epidemiologist Rob Wallace believes the way we’re farming meat animals in industrial conditions will not only create more deadly viruses (called pathogens), but that the next one might kill a billion people.

Furthermore, Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, did say, “we can’t eradicate a virus [COVID-19] like this because of an animal reservoir,” which highlights the situation that others and myself have been publicly saying and exposing for over two decades.

The biggest problem and challenge in today’s agri-business hog and general livestock industry is convincing governments that raising thousands of animals in a concentrated environment is a catalyst for pandemic diseases that threaten the very existence of human beings.

John Fefchak
Virden