Avian Flu in Time Mag, LA Times front page, NY Times + more topics 12/8/24

Avian flu is currently the number one animal story, as it spreads across species, threatening their health and ours, and is behind gruesome mass culls via ventilation shutdown plus heat. It was on the Los Angeles Times front page yesterday, with a follow up story today noting its appearance in a second California child. And Time Magazine has just released a superb essay on it coauthored by Our Honor’s Crystal Heath and Farm Sanctuary’s Gene Baur. A New York Times op-ed on the topic, which I will share, has covered some of the same ground but with no discussion of our unconscionable treatment of animals.

Before I share those, let me share responses to the superb Los Angeles Times coverage of the animal shelter crisis. Under the heading “How to Save a Dog’s Life” and a photo of two adorable dogs looking out of their shelter cage, the Los Angeles Times printed three strong letters which I displayed on the DawnWatch Facebook page and also displayed on the DawnWatch X feed.

As I noted in my comments there, while I passionately support PETA, I don’t agree with their suggestion that the city should abandon its quest for no-kill, just as I would not see killing homeless humans as an acceptable option for ending their suffering in shelters. But nevertheless, I appreciate the thoughtful and compassionate way in which the manner was discussed in all letters printed, and I thank all of you who wrote, laying the ground for such comprehensive and prominent coverage of the issue on the letters page.

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Yesterday’s front-page Los Angeles Times story, by Susanne Rust, was titled, “USDA to begin testing milk for bird flu.” I can share this Yahoo link for those who hit a paywall at the LA Times link.

Though USDA plans to step up testing, we read that a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist shares in a blog post:

“Eradication of H5N1 is likely impossible in the short term… The shorter-term goals should be to minimize replication through movement biosecurity and (hopefully) vaccination and then maximize transparency.”

(A few folks reading that might notice the implicit suggestion that the more widespread avian flu becomes, the more profitable it should be for vaccine producers. )

Today’s story,  on page B3, is titled, “Possible bird flu case is reported in California child” and is also by Susanne Rust. I can also share a Yahoo link to that one.

It includes a quote from Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, R.I:

“Given the proximity of this case to the last case of H5N1 diagnosed in a child without known exposure to animals, it may be prudent to conduct a broader investigation, including a serologic study, to see if there is evidence of other infections in the area.”

Given the Los Angeles Times is paying close attention to this story, we should not waste the perfect opportunity it gives us to speak up for animals on the letters page.

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It was heartening to see the names of activist extraordinaire Crystal Heath, the founder of the veterinary advocacy group “Our Honor” and Gene Baur, co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, as the authors of the Time Magazine essay, published online titled, “It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu,” and to therefore know that animals would not be left out of the discussion.

Their essay opens with:

“Since the beginning of the bird flu outbreak nearly three years ago, state and federal departments of agriculture have had one goal in mind: Maintain consumer confidence—as tens of millions of birds are culled and taxpayers bear the cost of industry bailouts. Every new media report of an infected dairy herd, poultry flock, or farm worker comes with the ubiquitous industry-approved mantra, ‘Don’t worry, the meat and the milk are safe.’

“But this messaging deflects from the production methods that have enabled the virus to spread in ways yet to be fully understood.”

They tell us:

“Pigs can foster the creation of a more virulent and transmissible human pathogen due to their ability to harbor both avian and human influenza viruses”

And they note how authorities are underplaying the spread and the danger:

“In June, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told scientific experts the virus would just ‘burn itself out,’ only to have the virus explode in California a few months later.

We read:

“Our food systems, heavily dominated by concentrated animal feeding operations, facilitate the spread of pathogens. In crowded and filthy conditions, turkeys and chickens (as well as other farmed animals and human workers) are vulnerable to diseases like bird flu. Meanwhile, our exploitation of animals, both farmed and wild, on a massive scale is putting public health at immense risk. In fact, over 75% of emerging human pathogens are zoonotic in origin.

“After learning the unsavory truth about the industry, informed consumers are beginning to become conscientious objectors to the oppression of our fellow animals by avoiding products derived from their exploitation. Despite fluctuations in consumer demand, animal agriculture receives billions of dollars of public support to ensure its survival in the face of changing consumption habits. In fact, 73% of dairy profits come from some form of subsidy, according to a 2015 report made for the dairy industry.”

And of the agriculture industry:

“Instead of using innovation to shift to responsible and resilient animal-free food production, they can rely on government handouts, $38 billion a year according to a study by U.C. Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, to enable their current business model.”

On VSD+:

“As the COVID-19-induced bottleneck closed slaughterhouses due to worker illnesses, pig producers resorted to sealing up buildings, pumping in heat and steam, and waiting hours for their excess pigs to die in a process known as ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+). The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) states that VSD+ should be reserved for only “constrained circumstances,” but when bird flu struck again in 2022, the poultry industry’s failure to plan led VSD+ to become one of the most commonly used methods of killing. What’s more, taxpayers were forced to bail out producers while those same billion-dollar companies made record profits. It’s a system that rewards businesses that act in irresponsible and callous ways toward the animals with a recklessness that also jeopardizes public safety and the health of workers.”

Heath and Baur suggest that businesses “dependent on animal-based ingredients” start replacing them, “for their financial security but for public and planetary health.”

It is a superb piece. It may be in the next print edition of Time Magazine, but Time no longer prints letters, so the most effective response is to share the essay widely, and to let it inspire your letters elsewhere.

I have it posted on the DawnWatch X Feed with the magazine, the authors, and their organizations tagged, and also posted on the DawnWatch Facebook Page that way.

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A New York Times op-ed, by Zeynep Tufekci, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, covered some of the same ground last Sunday, under the headline, “How to Avoid a Foreseeable Catastrophe”. Unfortunately, I totally missed it when it came out, as it didn’t trigger any of my search terms, which is telling — no mention of animal welfare or rights for example. But it is well worth checking out.

It covers the political angle as it notes “the Biden administration’s failure — one might even say refusal — to respond adequately to this disease or to prepare us for viral outbreaks that may follow,” and acknowledges, “It’s certainly true that taking on powerful industrial farming interests would have created political headaches for the Biden administration.”

The piece includes:

“The H5N1 avian flu, having mutated its way across species, is raging out of control among the nation’s cattle, infecting roughly a third of the dairy herds in California alone. …

“Flu viruses have a special trick: If two different types infect the same host — a farmworker with regular flu who also gets H5N1 from a cow — they can swap whole segments of their RNA, potentially creating an entirely new and deadly virus that has the ability to spread among humans. It’s likely that the 1918 influenza pandemic, for example, started as a flu virus of avian origin that passed through a pig in eastern Kansas…

“One recent study of 115 farmworkers found that about 7% of them showed signs of a recent, undetected H5N1 infection. They’d been going about their lives — visiting markets, churches, other homes — while harboring the potential seed of a new pandemic…

It tells us that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture, led under President Joe Biden by Tom Vilsack, an alumnus of the Obama administration who in between those two postings took a turn in a powerful dairy industry position, …has put a higher value on the short-term profits of the powerful dairy farming industry than on the health of billions of people.”

I can share this gift link with you.

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This week DawnWatch UK subscribers received an alert about a London Times front-page story focusing on the damage that mock meat does to the planet — while entirely ignoring animal suffering.

And Texans have received an alert on an op-ed decrying an upcoming San Antonio vote on a carriage horse ban.

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In major mainstream media, posted to the DawnWatch X thread and the DawnWatch Facebook Page over the last week:

The Los Angeles Times brought us great news on wolf pups: “Four years ago, there was just one pack. Now there are nine, according to a map released by CDFW this month. And with 30 pups born this year, more are expected to form.”

And the LA Times brought us more great news : “After years of debate, nearly two miles of fencing that prevented Point Reyes National Seashore tule elk from accessing water and competing for food with nearby cattle will be removed…”

Time Magazine has run a hard to read article, “What to Know About Gadhimai Festival—and Its Controversial Mass Animal Sacrifice,” which tells us, “During the last festival in 2019, as many as 250,000 creatures were beheaded, according to animal welfare group Humane Society International.” (Thanks to Teresa D’Amico for sending that our way.)

Vox brings us beautiful news from Mexico, about animal welfare being written into the national constitution:

“Plenty of countries have laws against animal mistreatment, including the US, where all 50 states have an anti-cruelty law, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been particularly effective at stopping violence against animals. Part of the problem is that these laws very often exempt farmed animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens, thereby excluding from protection the overwhelming majority of animals that suffer at human hands. That’s where Mexico’s reforms stand out: They’re intended to protect all animals, including farmed animals and other exploited species.”

The Toronto Star published a nice piece on the work of Coyote Watch, which guides better coexistence with canids.

And finally, you might want to grab a tissue to read the beautiful tribute to Pilots N Paws pilot, Seuk Kim, who died in a plane crash last week and was buried with the canine victim of the crash, whom he was trying to rehome. It came out online today, and will likely appear in the paper over the next day or two, so appreciative letters are well worth sending. Here’s a gift link to the touching piece.

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch