The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop bird flu
The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop bird flu
Bird flu is surging again. We failed to prepare, and now animals are paying the price.
Last year, I wrote a great deal about the rise of “ventilation shutdown plus” (VSD+), a method being used to mass kill poultry birds on factory farms by sealing off the airflow inside barns and pumping in extreme heat using industrial-scale heaters, so that the animals die of heatstroke over the course of hours. It is one of the worst forms of cruelty being inflicted on animals in the US food system — the equivalent of roasting animals to death — and it’s been used to kill tens of millions of poultry birds during the current avian flu outbreak.
As of this summer, the most recent period for which data is available, more than 49 million birds, or over 80 percent of the depopulated total, were killed in culls that used VSD+ either alone or in combination with other methods, according to an analysis of USDA data by Gwendolen Reyes-Illg, a veterinary adviser to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), an animal advocacy nonprofit. These mass killings, or “depopulations,” in the industry’s jargon, are paid for with public dollars through a USDA program that compensates livestock farmers for their losses.
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Culling animals is never compassionate, but it must be done.
Why use a method that’s illegal most other places? The description is pretty insane sounding.
They never answer the question
Why is it illegal? I suppose in this instance you contain the birds in a barn that might be deseased and withdraw their oxygen. Probably the cleanest way to do it.
Right. So why are they normalizing this method? It’s illegal because it’s so cruel, that’s like the entire point of the article lol
They used to drive cattle into a pit and shoot them until they were all dead. Like I said at the outset, it's always cruel.
I fail to see how shooting something in the head is the same as hours of torture. There are reasons we have animal welfare standards.
You think they were head shots? That's funny,
This is equivalent of leaving a child in a hot car in cruelty.
But it's not a child. It's an animal that must be killed to stop the spread of disease.
Did you know that humans are animals? We are not some sort of godly being separated from nature, we came from it and we are a part of it.
You noticed that no one in here is arguing that these diseased animals should be kept alive, right? Your argument is in bad faith and it's clear you barely thought about it before typing.
Our problem is with how it is done, euthanasia is supposed to be humane and fast. This is an extremely slow and painful process in which the chicken is subjected to extreme distress needlessly. Just to save a few bucks.
They could have at least incapacitated the birds first. They didn't need to be awake for their brutal slow death.
Did you know that humans are animals? We are not some sort of godly being separated from nature, we came from it and we are a part of it.
Great, so you have no issues with people eating meat then? Since animals also eat meat, and humans are animals?
Yep! I have no problem with a human eating meat. Nice try tho
My only problem lies with the manner in which we obtain that meat.
I have the utmost respect for hunters, they actually earned their meat.
I have no respect for people who buy factory farmed meat in a grocery store. There is nothing natural about that.Calm down and have your mom make you some more tendies
Sometimes yes, farmers do have to cull animals. All of the farmers I've met try to do it in a quick way at least, like cutting off the head of a chicken or a cattle gun to knock the animal out first.
Cutting off the heads of a thousand diseased chickens would take a bit of time, don't you think?
Yes but at least it's more humane than cooking the animals for hours
Culling isn't humane. Culling is a necessity. Farmers and ranchers don't like to cull, they lose money doing it. You give them a cleaner and cheaper way to do it, and they'll do that. Culling prevents disease from spreading into the entire food system. Sitting on your couch and deciding the best tactic to do it is ridiculous.
So profit is the motivation. Huh.
Sigh. The reason that you cull is a transmittable disease is present within a group of livestock. That livestock can not be eaten, so you take it out of the food supply before it infects other groups. Not so hard to understand is it?
They could have just not made the chickens in the first place
Then it wouldn't need to be done
Gawd. That doesn't make a lick of sense