Covid-19 and Animal Farming
- 03
- Apr
Animal Place has long warned the public about the dangers related to animal farming. It causes harm to nonhuman animals, our planet, and our health. We are now in the midst of a global pandemic caused by COVID-19 (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2). We are seeing the catastrophic results that animal farming can have on our planet and society.
Individuals are grasping for more information. Where did COVID-19 originate? How can we prevent future pandemics? There are answers to many of these questions. You can help stop future pandemics that come from farming wild and domestic animals. Now is the time to make the connection between animal agriculture and deadly zoonotic diseases.
Dr Aysha Akhtar, a neurologist, public health specialist and a Commander in the US Public Health Service states “Three-fourths of emerging human infectious diseases come from animals. But it’s not the animals’ fault. If we want to prevent these diseases and save millions of people from untold suffering we have to face the inevitable and uncomfortable truth: the real culprit is how we choose to relate with and treat animals.”
The coronavirus is not the first pandemic the human race has battled that has ties to animal farming. In 1918 we saw horrific results from the “Spanish” Influenza where the acute illness was seen in 25-30 percent of the world’s population and caused death in an estimated 50 million people. Spanish Influenza was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. The SARS Coronavirus (Cov) epidemic of 2003 is thought to be an animal virus that spread to civet cats and then to humans. It infected 8,098 and killed 774 people. Another infectious disease that emerged from humans’ desire to eat meat was Ebola in 2014, which came from the direct exposure to Fruit Bats and the butchering of primates. Ebola killed over 13,000 people. HIV, the cause of AIDS in the human population can be traced back to a population of chimpanzees and likely jumped to humans through butchering and consuming their flesh. According to the World Health Organization, at the end of 2018, HIV had taken 32 million lives.
COVID-19 has impacted almost every country. We do not know how many will die, but as of April 2, 2020, it has infected over 1 million and killed nearly 53 thousand people.
Scientists believe that the coronavirus originated from a wet market (live animal market), in Wuhan, China. This market sold live and dead animals for human consumption. Some of the animals are killed and butchered onsite. Environments like these are filled with stressed and terrified animals, feces and urine, and the aftermath of those who were butchered. These filthy and overcrowded conditions are the perfect breeding ground for viruses like COVID-19.
How different is a wet market in Wuhan, China, compared to an industrial chicken farm in the United States? The similarities are frightening. 99% of animals raised in the US come from large-scale operations where stressed and terrified animals are crammed into small spaces often living in their own feces and other bodily fluids.
Calling for an end to wild animal markets is not enough. History has proven through other pandemics and COVID-19 that there is a direct link between eating animals and global pandemics. It is time to make a change. To prevent pandemics like coronavirus we must end the demand for animal flesh. For a healthy and kinder world, we must go vegan.
Comments
14 Responses so far.
Recent News
- Why Should We Care: A webinar series you won’t want to miss
- Join us for the Meatout Meet up in March!
- Ideas and Recipes for an Easy Vegan Thanksgiving
- Animal Place asks Patagonia to Ditch Down
Join The E-news List
Connect With Us
I have long been wanting and trying to turn to vegan. it’s difficult I truly love animals and my consciousness has been raised
That is why I became a vegetarian 2 years ago through FB in which Paul Mc Carney narrated with videos.
Let us support veganism!! Humans are omnivores and can live without eating animals and animal products. That would be better for us, for the animals, and for the planet.
We must end the eating of flesh from animals. Most animals come from unsanitary conditions and this must end. This will be the end of civilization as we know it if we don’t end this insanity now!!
Absolutely agree. Vegan is the way to go!
We are cutting back on animal protein. Most meat we consume is from Nutrafarms.
I totally agree that we must begin to end animal consumption in any form. It will take some time but it can be done.
Stop slaughtering animals for food.
I do not eat animals of any kind. I do eat fish, however. Fish do not have a central nervous system, and therefore do not feel pain.
You need to be clearer in the definition of ‘vegan’, which is a radical diet, excluding dairy and eggs. This is not necessary to exclude dairy products, if the animals are not forced to mass produce with hormones.
Animals are abused, and this needs to stop. I eat fish and dairy products, and also only organic fruits and vegetables. I will not eat anything that is tortured or mass produced, which is painful to the hens when forced to lay too many eggs.
There is good karma with my food, and I never get sick because I also avoid foods that have pesticides used on them.
Major criminals in the ‘food’ industry are Monsanto-Bayer, who also manufacture and distribute pesticides and poisons such as round up. They call themselves ‘food’ companies! They are really poison distributors.
All pesticides are causing massive cancers, which is another issue. I would love to see all animal farming in the entire world shut down!
Fish do have a central nervous system and also feel pain.
I used to eat fish but because fisheries are depleted we should reconsider eating fish too. Just a thought: let’s leave the fish as a source of food for sea creatures.
Thanks for being compassionate.
I am glad you have ruled out many animals from your diet.
However, to be very clear, “vegan” includes not using any products that come from animal sources, including leather, wool, honey, silk. Being vegan very much includes not eating fish. Fish do suffer. Imagine being caught in a net and dragged out of the water and slowly suffocating. Imagine all the “collateral” caught in that net including dolphins and other animals that will suffer needlessly.
Again, I am glad you have taken the time to read the article and consider how animals lives are impacted. And I also would love to see animal farming, including “humane” farming. Including fish farming.
Thanks for informing me to stop earring any meat. Yes people need to make changes now to stop buying and eating animals. A solution.
If it has a mother u should not eat it
Agreed! All living beings deserve to be treated with compassion.
I too believe we humans should not consume our animal co-habitors in this world. It will take many many years for most humans to accept this premise, if they ever do come to this conclusion.
It doesn’t surprise me to think your article is correct when you state eating animal flesh leads to viruses due to the stress and fear the animals feel when in these type of environments, e.g. slaughter houses, and wet markets. Untold human suffering could most likely be avoided by people eating a plant based diet.