Avian flu spread, shelter deaths, China meat alternatives and Panda fund fraud 12/1/24

The spread of avian flu, through dairy herds and to humans, has been featured in the Los Angeles Times repeatedly over the last week, including on the front page of yesterday’s paper and in today’s, Sunday December 1, edition. The high kill rate at Los Angeles animal shelters is on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times. The New York Times looked, Friday, at China’s focus on alternative meats.  And today that paper features, on the front page, money paid to China by worldwide zoos for panda exhibitions, earmarked for conservation, which has been misspent.

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Saturday’s Los Angeles Times had two bird flu stories on the front page! One story , by Susanne Rust, was titled, “Bird flu worries halt raw dairy.”

It opens with:

“State agriculture officials on Thursday banned Fresno-based Raw Farm from distributing its raw dairy products to retailers amid ongoing concerns about possible bird flu infections among its cattle.

“However, with the exception of two limited recalls announced in the last few days, products from the farm that are already on store shelves can remain available for sale.”

And it includes:

“‘The fact that H5N1 continues to spread unabated and then surprising us by infecting milk and people in places we don’t expect is bad,’ said Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. ‘It stokes my concerns that we are giving this virus a runway to launch a pandemic.”

As fort the scope of the spread, so far:

“According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since August cows in 474 dairy herds in California have tested positive for bird flu. That’s roughly half of the more than 900 dairy herds in the state.”

For those hitting a paywall at the Los Angeles Times, you can also find that story on Yahoo .

The other front-page story, titled  “Business as usual despite H5N1,” was penned by both Susanne Rust and Melissa Gomez .

It shares:

“The scene seemed utterly unremarkable — except for the fact that five days earlier, the H5N1 bird flu virus that has ravaged California’s dairy herds for the last three months had been confirmed on the farm. Although dozens of cows were sick, and their owner expected that number to climb, none of the farm’s workers wore personal protective equipment and vehicles from off site were let in and out with nary a hint of concern.

But we read:

“However, some experts warn that nearly all the conditions needed for the virus to develop a threatening mutation are now present in many dairy farms: lax testing protocols; close, unprotected contact between humans and animals; a general failure to take the threat seriously enough; and the approach of human flu season.”

I can also provide a paywall-free Yahoo link to that one,

Then today, on page A12, we find an article, by Suhauna Hussain, titled, “Bird flu lab staffers say they’re overworked.” It tells us of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory:

“Far from working at full capacity, however, the Davis lab has been roiled over the past year by workplace tensions. Understaffing and poor management… have left lab employees overworked and struggling to keep pace with testing demands, while creating an environment where mistakes are more likely. An exodus of most of the staff this year left Laxamana and a co-worker for a period as the only two people testing for the virus on a daily basis.

“The stakes for the lab are high: It is the only lab in the state with the authority to confirm bird flu cases. Although there is no evidence that the alleged workplace problems have contributed to an outbreak, processing tests quickly gives farmers a jump on quarantining or culling infected animals.”

Here’s a Yahoo Link to that one.

If you have not yet thanked the Los Angeles Times for covering this issue so closely (while I thank Elaine Livesey-Fassel for covering that paper so closely) I hope you’ll grab this opportunity, sharing just a line or two on your own thoughts about the dairy industry, in order to give animals a voice. Or if you have written on the issue, but not yet been published, don’t hesitate to write again now that election obsession is over and there is more room for animal-themed letters.

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If the killing of healthy animals due to the pet overpopulation crisis is closer to your heart, today’s front-page story on that gives you an opportunity to weigh in with gratitude for the coverage and a voice for animals. It is titled, “Deaths increase for pets at L.A’s shelters” and is penned by Dakota Smith and Lorena Iniguez Elebee.

It opens with a sad personal tale of one dog:

“Jake, a tawny 2-year-old mutt in L.A.’s West Valley shelter, wasn’t doing well.

“After six months at the shelter, he was running back and forth and jumping in his kennel.

“So shelter workers put him on the euthanasia list in September.

“‘With the current staff we are unable to fulfill his enrichment needs and it is inhumane to continue housing in a shelter environment,’ the workers’ notes said.”

And from there it goes on to share the numbers:

“The number of dogs euthanized in animal shelters run by the city of L.A. has skyrocketed this year.

“From January to September, 1,224 dogs were euthanized at the city’s six shelters — a 72% increase compared with the same period a year ago, according to a Times analysis.

“The number of dogs entering the shelters has increased each year since 2022. But the number put to death this year has far outpaced the population gain. The euthanasia rate for dogs increased to more than 8% this year from 5.5% last year during the January-to-September period.

“About 1,517 cats were euthanized through September — a 17% increase from a year ago.”

You can read the full, distressing article at the link I provided above or at this Yahoo link.

Media matters in situations like this – it drives change. And your responses encourage the media.

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Today’s front-page New York Times story on the misuse of conservation funds is titled, “U.S. Looks Away on China’s Misuse of Panda Aid.” The subtitle tells us, “A Times investigation found that zoos knew conservation money went toward apartment buildings and roads. But they wanted to keep displaying pandas, so nobody looked too closely.”

I can share this gift link to the article with the hope that you might share your appreciation for the Times investigation, with a letter that gives animals a voice.

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The opinion section of Friday’s New York Times, page A20, included a piece by Jacob Dreyer titled, “Is China Coming for Your Turkey, Too?” Online the same article has the more descriptive title, “China Is on a Quest for the Holy Grail of Meat. Let’s Hope It Succeeds.”

It tells us:

“The age-old way of producing meat — clearing forests to feed vast herds of greenhouse-gas-emitting livestock whose flesh is shipped through global supply chains — is hurting the planet. If scientists can figure out how to affordably cultivate meat in a lab at scale, it could become the standard mealtime fare of tomorrow. It might have to. And if China is willing to invest in technologies with potentially global benefits, Americans should view it not as a national security threat but as inspiration for how our protein markets could evolve, too….

“China’s goal is the holy grail of meat: commercially viable alternatives that taste as good as the real thing and can be produced at scale but without the emissions, production costs, land use and risk to supply chains of animal-sourced meat. In the United States this idea has inspired big promises from manufacturers and billions of dollars in venture capital funding over the past decade. But reality is setting in as industry players discover that producing cultivated meats in volume is far more difficult and costly than expected. China, with its state-directed approach, may be in a better position to crack the code. We have seen what its scientists and engineers can do when state planners put their minds and resources to solving difficult technical problems.”

I am happy to share this gift link to the piece along with the paper’s note, which appears online right below the article:

“The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com ”

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In other mainstream media animal news shared over the last week on the new DawnWatch X page,  and DawnWatch Facebook Page :

The New York Post shared a report that sang the praises of vegan diets, including for your wallet.

UK’s Independent focused on animal testing horrors with, “Monkeys flown to UK for lab tests found ‘injured and terrified’ in blood-soaked plane crates.”

Mutt’s, unsurprisingly, brought us the perfect cartoon on Thanksgiving Day.

Sad news from Maui Now, that the island’s no-kill animal rescue is closing its doors at the end of the year.

And heartbreaking news from the Pinnacles Gazette, which includes a sweet photo of the man, and sweet words from NPR’s weekend edition with Scott Simon, on the loss of Seuk Kim, along with some dogs he was rescuing at the time, in a small plane crash.

A life lost too soon, but beautifully lived.

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch