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Perhaps we should call this The Pig and Bull Page!

February 2010. Is ritual bull slaughter morally acceptable? Professor David Benatar examines a Zulu rite of passage from a Western perspective in "Cultural value cannot justify cruel slaughter," reprinted with permission from Cape Times. See also Mailbag.

Big pig money and the WHO

Two more strands in the pig noose are pandemics such as swine flu and the political economics of CAFOS (Confined Animal Feeding Operation). Colin writes on swine/avian influenza, the avian connection, and on human health and the political economy of CAFOs on a new posting at his blog

Egypt

Headline from BBC News May 2009: Egyptian pig farmers have clashed with police in Cairo, as they tried to stop their animals being slaughtered

Although there have been no cases of swine flu reported in Egypt, the government culled 250,000 ─ all of its country's pigs ─ despite the fact that UN experts say is not necessary to prevent swine flu.

Some regard this as politico-religious, as Egypt's pigs mostly belong to the Coptic Christian minority. Authorities say it is a public health measure despite initially claiming that the pig cull was a precaution against swine.

BBC News article

Photo: www.geocities.com/tony2kuk/
pictures/pig.jpg

The Pig Page

Pig farming then and now
A Boy Looking into a Pig Sty 1794, by George Morland	ABC-TV (Australia) report about pig farming in Tasmania

The Philippines

Prof Mary-Louise Penrith from the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases at the University of Pretoria in South Africa writes about the pig cull in the Philippines at ProMED, a posting of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Prof Penrith and Colin corresponded in March about pigs and the outbreak of Ebola Reston, a disease transmitte by bats to pigs, but which to date (unlike its much better known African cousin, Ebola) causes, at worst, a mild disease in humans. She said, 'I assist the FAO as an expert on African swine fever, a disease of pigs (only pigs, humans are not affected except of course economically) that has high mortality and for which there is no vaccine. Nevertheless, I am dedicated to discouraging massive culling of pigs as a means to control the disease - in all the areas where I have worked with this disease and am now working with it most of the pig farmers are extremely poor, and it is impossible to believe that a control method that involves killing far more pigs than the disease would is the right way to go! So when I read that they will kill 6,000 healthy pigs (in the Philippines) and destroy the carcasses, I am truly horrified. Whatever one's opinions are about meat consumption, that kind of waste is appalling, and it certainly has serious environmental implications.'

Colin responded, 'I was very upset to read this. I am a keynote speaker tomorrow (March 2009) on environmental health and health reasons for reducing meat consumption, in Aarhus, Denmark. I will try to mention this in my talk. I also doubt the human health benefit of the culling in this case.' Culling the pigs might reduce the risk of Ebola Reston evolving to a more virulent form (and this would have been the justification) but it might also be useless. The only way to eliminate this possibility would be to kill all the bats in the Philippines, or to ban all concentrated pig-farming operations there. The first option is not only cruel to bats but also unlikely to be successful, and it would cause severe ecological harm. The second option, in fact, should be a long-term goal. Photo top: 4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q272mE-7Bf4/Sa5RPUoqe9I/AA; bottom: http://free-stock-photos.com/