Avoid the Flu

Last May 21, we did a demo in front of the U.S. Embassy. Our campaign: Meat is Toxic Avoid the Flu Go Vegetarian. We were clad in yellow hazmat suits with gas masks while holding signs that read, "Eating Meat Is Toxic. Avoid the Flu. Go Veg!" together with the members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia-Pacific.

Factory-farmed pigs often suffer from chronic flu, and factory-farmed animals in general are invariably stressed and disease-ridden as a result of being crammed by the thousands into filthy sheds, which are breeding grounds for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses. Pregnant sows are confined to narrow metal stalls barely larger than their own bodies in which 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.

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."

"We've known for some time 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's Rochelle Regodon. "The best way to protect our health-- individually and globally-- is to go vegetarian."

For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com