The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop bird flu

[jfz9580m]

This is shockingly inhumane:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23963820/bird-flu-surge-us-ventilation-shutdown-veterinarians

This fall, bird flu is surging again. So far in October and November, it’s infected dozens of factory farms largely in the Midwest, including on turkey farms raising animals for Thanksgiving season — resulting in the extermination of 4 million chickens and turkeys in just a month and a half.

I use the word “extermination” deliberately. Although many outlets have written that the birds on farms hit with bird flu are being “euthanized,” the reality of these mass killings is far from the painless end implied by that term.

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.

This is a hard read but it is a reality we cannot ignore. Jfyi - for anyone interested in animal welfare, Maria Bolotnikova’s work is great. She is a journalist who is absolutely dedicated to giving these issues the attention they deserve.
I find these kinds of stories very hard to read, but I force myself to skim them to spread awareness.

Our treatment of animals is not based in science or reason:
https://www.steelsnowflake.org/post/animal-ethics-three-philosophies-animal-ethics

I never say that everyone should be vegan nor have unreasonable expectations. But surely this should not be happening.

[jimfields33]

1. There must be a better way to humanely kill the birds

I know it’s a tough situation because they don’t want a horrid disease to spread.. Any possible shot that can be used instead?

[jfz9580m]

2. Well the article mentions

Methods in use by Canada and Europe which are not great either, but at least better than this.

The problem is that the poultry industry is doubling down on this. Even some vets are criticising it. But it comes down to this:

“With the ‘easy’ method of VSD+Heat available to them, mega-CAFOs [or extra-large factory farms] are taking no measures whatsoever to enable the use of more humane methods.”

I post about these things to work towards raising public awareness. If these things can make it to the ballot box eventually some day, (e.g.: like prop 12 in ca), some genuinely humane legislation can come into being:
https://thehumaneleague.org/article/prop-12

(The Humane League also does some great work in this line).

But this is a really dark sign for animal rights and which is why awareness needs to be raised in the general public about mainstreaming this:

Now, with heaters in its emergency response arsenal, the marginal cost to Pennsylvania of using ventilation shutdown will be even lower.

“This just reinforces our impression that VSD is the ‘go to’ depopulation method and little serious attempt is being made by states to conduct the preparation needed to use preferred methods of killing,” Dena Jones, director of AWI’s farm animal welfare program, told me in an email. “Without continuing pressure from animal advocates, it’s likely that even more birds would be killed with this barbaric method.”

[redqueen]

9. It's about money. Capitalism embraces cruelty if it increases profits nt

[Jirel]

3. Stop. Got a better proposal?

The hand wringing is foolish. Methods of killing flocks and that require human intervention (individual injection or others that require touching such as collecting groups for CO2 gassing) are too dangerous. Humans then SPREAD the virus by taking it in and out of the facilities, and can spread it to other species, including local wildlife and even potentially people. This ends the threat efficiently and is a mercy. Have you ever seen a bird with avian influenza? It’s horrible. The heating in there is no more terrible than what the disease is already doing to the chickens.

Do you propose to leave them suffering even longer, in your theoretical “more humane” method? High heat also destroys the virus, BTW.

[jfz9580m]

4. Well I think factory farming itself is at the root of

Last edited Sat Nov 18, 2023, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

These outbreaks.,

But I don’t suppose you would be willing to consider arguments questioning this style of food production.
I am not hand wringing Jirel. I do think these are extremely cruel methods and it is a constant race to the bottom wrt animal welfare standards. It is getting ridiculous.

Even the USDA recommended this only as a stopgap method and now it is quietly being normalised and it is mainly about profits not safety.

In America’s peer countries, ventilation shutdown has been effectively banned because it’s so inhumane; last year, Danish bioethicist Peter Sandøe told me he was “shocked” by the method’s prevalence in the US and that in the European Union, relying on it would be illegal.

[mopinko]

5. agree.

i mean, it beats tossing them in woodchippers, which is a thing.
i wd think dry ice wd work as well, mortality-wise. chicago uses it instead of rat poison where possible. they get cold, fall asleep, die. pretty peaceful. no machines needed, no big electric bill.

hadnt thought about the infection control aspects of the thing, glad u pointed that out. makes sense.

i think most of what’s involved in making meat is abhorrent to ppl not used to it. and in the modern age, most of us dont have to see it if we dont want to.
i eat meat, but i’ve met my meat. raised chickens for 10 yrs, and butchered quite a few of them.
but then again, i’m pretty comfortable w death. not saying if that is right or wrong. just is.

[flvegan]

8. Yes, I do.

Stop eating them. Or at least, diminish demand by limiting the average intake. It's not the hand-wringing that's foolish, it's the general apologist response.

[GuppyGal]

6. Eat Less Meat ....just eat less !!!! It's easy and you can do it !!!!!!!!

I can't even read the post I don't want to be upset first thing in the morning

[jfz9580m]

7. I so get that

I have to force myself to read these things .

I am usually cautious in stepping on people’s toes with this since most people -even very nice people - eat meat and I don’t want to set people’s backs up so much as make an appeal on behalf of the animals. Hard to change hearts and minds without that…

[JI7]

11. From what I found it's best to do things like promote

non meat meals rather than focus on getting people not to eat meat.

And it's easier for people to just cut back rather than give up eating meat entirely.

⁰

[redqueen]

10. One way to eat less meat is to not buy factory farmed

I give poor people a pass but anyone with a conscience and the means should at the very least be selecting pasture raised animals who are treated humanely. The increased cost will help reduce the frequency of consumption (hopefully) as well.

[orwell]

12. I worked in a meat plant...

...for a brief time in my youth.

Because of that time, I now don't eat any meat, and I was a meat lover.

People really have no idea what they are putting in their mouths.

It is truly sickening in more ways than one.

It is just another example of needless suffering inflicted by our species due to willful ignorance.

[jfz9580m]

13. I remember your mentioning that

From a Dec 2020 post when DUer Maraya posted about a friendship between a donkey and little girl if I remember right.
Yeah I would imagine that would do it.

(Heh, I did remember that correctly . George Orwell is one of my favorite authors and I always (well okay not always but frequently) remember anything related to animal rights. I remember your posts-I had a different account as CatLady78 briefly back then because I had forgotten the password for this account:
https://democraticunderground.com/10181437776#post6)

[orwell]

14. A Blast from the past...

Thanks for the memories.

I haven't posted in years. I mostly just monitor the headline posts every day.

I had to take a sanity break and separate myself from the insanity of Drumpf's "viability" in the next election. It was such a relief to have an adult like President Biden sailing the ship of state.

It's easy to lose faith in a substantial portion of the American electorate when you see them actually listening to this traitorous moron blowhard grifter.

In some ways, it is like the willful ignorance most of us have when it comes to something as important as how our food is grown/raised/slaughtered. It seems that inconvenient truths and easily papered over by the magic fairy dust of selective ethics and personal expediency.

We are in the golden age of frauds, hucksters, and pseudo science, fueled by attention span-tuned algorithms and un-social media empires.

Bread and circus indeed...

[jfz9580m]

15. Indeed

[Mr.Bill]

16. I have to admit, I like a good cheeseburger as much as anyone else.

But an awereness of where the meat comes from and how it died are making me like meat less and less as I grow older. I now find it a bit repulsive to have a whole or identifiable portion of an animal on my plate, or at least less desirable than I used to.

If I hadn'r been born in Baltimore and grown up taking crabs apart at the table, I would probably not be able to bring myself to do it still today. It has become a rare occasion.

[jfz9580m]

17. I really do appreciate it that you are open-minded

With regard to learning about where it comes from. I always respect that in meat eaters .

I understand when people cannot afford more humanely farmed meat and need to eat cheaply available food that is tasty. God knows most people have it hard as is. But people who can afford it should imo make a switch to more humanely farmed options where available. And reducing meat consumption would probably help everyone rich or poor.

I am a realist and I don’t expect overnight change, but incremental change is nothing to scoff at imo.

Of course we animal rights supporters have to lean on big Agra and its minions wherever we can as we try to change the hearts and minds of consumers.

Thanks for your post.