Cruel slaughter in bird flu outbreak is ‘unacceptable’ claim activists

Date: 19/02/04

ALTHOUGH human health concerns initially spring to most minds when it comes to the avian flu epidemic that has swept Asia, animal rights activists point out that inhumane slaughter methods are another aspect of the tragedy.

"It is completely unacceptable, even with the scale of this outbreak, to allow chickens to be slaughtered by untrained or inexperienced personnel and to allow inhumane slaughter methods, such as chickens being thrown into sacks and buried alive in pits," the UK-based Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) stresses in a recent statement.

"It is vital that humane slaughter methods are introduced immediately to reduce any more unnecessary suffering.

"International organisations such as the OIE [World Organization for Animal Health] and FAO [Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN] have already offered to provide assistance to the countries involved, including the introduction of humane killing methods, so there is no excuse to continue in this cruel manner."

CIWF has launched a letter-writing campaign urging people to write to the relevant European-based ambassadors of the affected countries.

The group claims that the expansion of intensive animal farming in Asia is being "mirrored by the increase in animal diseases, such as avian flu".

Many of the countries affected are "extremely vulnerable" because they lack adequate animal welfare, environmental and human health legislation.

It is time, CIWF suggests, "for all governments to question their farming policy and the way animals are reared in industrial systems".

"Never before has it been more poignant to ask ourselves: 'Chicken - how come it's so cheap?'"

Avian influenza, also known as bird flu, is a highly contagious viral disease affecting chickens, turkeys, ducks as well as other birds.

In the current Asian epidemic, it appears to have spread from Thailand to Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan and China. So far, 20 people have died - 14 in Vietnam and six in Thailand.

The disease was first discovered in 1997 in Hong Kong, when six people died.

A separate avian flu outbreak in the Netherlands last spring spread into Belgium and Germany, but was contained after a mass slaughter and a temporary ban on the transport and sale of birds and chicks from the affected areas.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Asian outbreak could persist for at least six more months, largely because governments are reacting too slowly.

"Even though there are fewer people infected we still have to maintain the culls," said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley.

"There's no question that this must continue until every last infected bird has been killed.

"It could take as long as six months for that to happen."

Health experts fear that the bird virus could mingle with a strain of human flu and mutate, setting off a disastrous pandemic, but so far no cases of human-to-human transmission have been detected.

However, Health Commissioner David Byrne has tabled a plan for cooperation between EU member states in the event of an outbreak such as that of avian flu.

The "Pandemic Plan" proposes a standardized method across all EU states to combat any outbreak.

Animal rights groups are concerned about inhumane slaughter methods in the avian flu epidemic that has swept Asia.

http://www.ciwf.co.uk/ http://www.ciwf.co.uk/

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