MORE QUESTIONS ON SUPPOSED 'SWINE FLU'

The mysterious virus in China has now killed 38 people and infected 206, and answers on how to stop it, or even what it is, seem to be more elusive than ever. The World Health Organization has recommended that further testing be conducted to nail down the identity of the pathogen, and Steve Mitchell reports that some experts are suggesting it could actually involve Ebola or Bird Flu. Whatever it is, two things are clear: 1) It's not good, and 2) The Chinese government is acting recklessly in actively blocking critical information and knowledge about exactly what's going on in Sichuan province.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS FOR KILLERS

"Faster, faster, get that product out the door!" is the industry byword. The results are cuts, amputations, skin disease, permanent arm and shoulder damage, and even death from the force of repeated hard cutting motions. When injured employees seek workers' compensation claims for their juries, they are told, "You got hurt at home, not on the job."

Sound familiar? Yes, of course, it's meatpacking, the most dangerous factory job in America, which once again has caused hand-wringing among the pundit class because workers are treated so terribly. Never mind how animals are treated - for some reason that's an unexamined given, but the abuse of people is a separate, newsworthy phenomenon. "The meatpacking industry has shown little inclination to respect its workers' rights on its own. Congress and the Bush administration should take decisive steps to protect the lives and well-being of these men and women. But they are unlikely to act until consumers demand meat that is not tainted by workers' blood, sweat and fear."

Uh, yeah. And how soon are consumers gonna demand that? Probably right around when they demand food that's not tainted by animals' blood, sweat and fear - which is to say, never, unless a great many people in this country suddenly wake up. Does this writer for Human Rights Watch really not get the fact that Americans refuse to think about how "meat" got from being an animal to being on their fork? Does this writer really not grasp that it's exactly that strained, desperate apathy among the public that enables meat companies to get away with the worst human-rights abuses of any top-tier industry? Cruelty begets cruelty, folks. Secrecy begets ignorance. An honest, transparent, fair system for those whose job is to needlessly kill sentient beings is as likely as a war without death. Ain't gonna happen.

ANIMALS SACRIFICED TO WYETH'S HOT AIR

An air-vent problem at one animal-testing lab has pointed to a disturbing problem with the industry as a whole. More than 500 mice died horrible suffocating deaths when a ventilator failed in 90-degree heat. Unless told otherwise, we can assume some if not most of these mice were current test subjects, meaning those tests are now ruined, meaning many more mice will have suffered and died for absolutely nothing. "Unfortunately, they had to be sacrificed," said the Wyeth spokesman. Yep, sacrificed to your company's incompetence. Sacrificed to your apathy. Note that Wyeth didn't even admit to the fiasco until asked by a reporter, tipped off by animal rights activists.

But the bigger news is in this shrug-it-off quote from the "private laboratory accreditation group" that's supposed to be monitoring conditions in animal-test labs: "I would not say this kind of thing happens frequently, but it does happen," said John H. Miller. Oh, does it? "He declined to disclose other cases, citing confidentiality agreements with member labs, but did say Wyeth's reported number of deaths was not unusual." Oh really? So 500 animals needlessly dying from simple human errors is common in this industry - as is, obviously the lack of true concern or accountability among the people responsible. Apparently the only unusual thing here is the public finding out about it. Shameful.

ATKINS CO. "SLIPS ON THE ICE"

Well, as "consumers have tired of the once-sizzling fad", the Crash Diet That Didn't Work files for bankruptcy, stiffing its creditors just as it did nutritionally to its own bandwagon-jumping acolytes. Partly this is because "the low-carb trend has sort of died on the vine," or more accurately, decayed off the bone, yet I do wonder how much the Atkins-smashing Carbophobia!, which appeared early this year, helped that process along.

But by pressing ahead as a run-of-the-mill shake and power bar company, Atkins first of all exposes itself to continued legal/market trouble, as PCRM vows to press their lawsuit forcing Atkins to put warning labels on its products, but it also loses the one thing even critics like PCRM and Dr. Greger conceded Atkins was right about: The importance of consuming whole, natural foods rather than processed foods. Well, OK, good luck selling your processed foods line, folks - at least you still have that iconic scarlet "A" to work with.

SHHHHHH... RECALL 'EXPANDED'

Heyyy, remember this post last week about the 15-state recall nobody heard about? You know, with the chicken products and listeria? Well, just like I bet they had slipped that one by you, I'll also wager you didn't get notice that the size of the recall was just expanded by three thousand percent - now not 3 but 90,000 pounds of potentially contaminated chicken.

Look: Every time a recall is expanded it means something went wrong in the recall process. If the 90,000 pounds are all suspect right now, they were all equally suspect back when the recall was issued at only 3,000 pounds. So the initial recall, if handled properly, should have been a 90,000-pound recall. Yet this kind of thing is far from rare with meat recalls. Who keeps screwing up and endangering lives? Why is that not explained - why does there seem to be no public accountability when this happens again?

Could it be because it's all part of a planned strategy? So far this one seems to be following the 2003 Pilgrims Pride recall playbook, if on a slightly smaller scale. Are these expansions a pattern of incompetence, or a savvy way of playing the "public safety" media for credulous chumps? After all, this announcement of 90,000 pounds of dangerous meat isn't a MEAT RECALL - it's just an EXPANSION of a previously-announced recall, which is hardly a big story. I mean, come on. It's old news. Move on, right?

BAD ZOONOSES IN ASIA

Let's just get the ledes on these, shall we?

32 Dead as China's Pig-Disease Crisis Escalates: The official Xinhua News Agency reports thirty-two villagers have died so far in a southeastern province in China that has been hit by an outbreak of a pig-borne disease. According to the report, Sichuan Province has documented 163 cases of swine streptococcus suis, among them 112 confirmed cases and 51 suspected ones.

UPDATE 8/1: "Sichuan authorities have ordered local journalists to stay away from locations where the disease has surfaced, and told newspapers to carry only stories as issued by the official New China News Agency." Well, that's a good sign, right?

Bird Flu Kills Two in Vietnam; Toll Now 60 The World Health Organization has repeatedly warned that avian influenza could mutate and become easily spread from person to person, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds.

Russia: Bird flu can infect humans Investigators have determined that a strain of bird flu virus infecting fowl in Russia is the type that can infect humans, the Agriculture Ministry has said. In a brief statement, the ministry identified the virus as avian flu type A H5N1. "That raises the need for undertaking quarantine measures of the widest scope," the statement said.

AND IN BETTER ZOONOTIC NEWS...

FDA Finally Bans Use of Baytril in Poultry Margaret Mellon, director of food and environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the FDA's move was "a big deal. It's the first time FDA has withdrawn a veterinary drug on the basis of antibiotic resistance concerns, fearing that use of the drug in animals is going to erode the effectiveness of the drugs in human medicine."

Great. Let's just hope it's not too late to do any good, and that the FDA follows up by banning other livestock antibiotics sooner rather than later.

PREMARIN: CANCER

Not exactly a bombshell given that it's been clear to most observers for over a year, but the UN's cancer agency has put its official stamp on the fact that hormone replacement therapy, taken by millions of women around the world, causes cancer. The reports so far have neglected to mention that the chief form of this therapy is pregnant mare's urine.

MORE TAINTED CHICKEN

3,000 pounds of "Ready-To-Eat Chicken Products" that were distributed to Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have been recalled by the USDA due to potential listeria contamination. Anybody out there hear about this potentially deadly chicken before reading it here? Anybody?

UPDATE 8/1: Expanded to 90,000 pounds.

ANOTHER MAD COW, ANOTHER RIDICULOUS MISTAKE

I just posted this to MetaFilter, so I'll rerun the wording here:

"I... Forgot."

Upon the death of a possible BSE cow, "the unidentified doctor preserved the brain stem sample in formalin... but then 'simply forgot' about it until mid-July." That's the reason why we're only hearing about it now. Any questions?

More to come on this, I'm sure...

UPDATE 7/28: Here's a story that I only came across today, but which came out a few hours before the new "possible" Mad Cow was announced: Do regulators [USDA] protect market or consumers when it comes to releasing Mad Cow tests? asks the Houston Chronicle. Though no one seems to have pressed govt. spokespeople on the fantastically coincidental "Friday" effect, we do get an admission in this story that the USDA does routinely delay announcements of bad meat-related news - at least until the end of the day: "USDA spokeswoman Amy Spillman said the department makes announcements after markets close whenever an animal tests inconclusive." The issue, of course, is that the Texas agriculture department wants them to keep consumers in the dark about their own safety even longer. Don't mess with Texas!

THE GREENING OF MCDONALD'S

This story I came across today provides an opportunity to say something I had been meaning to mention: Is it just me (i.e. Philadelphia) or are McDonald's ads radically changing? I've noticed that over the past year, the predominant color of McDonald's billboards and such has been... green. Not a color the beef-slinging fast-food chain has usually been associated with. This article says that it's part of a strenuous effort by the company to re-brand itself as a "healthy" eating choice. Good luck on that, Mickey. As long as you're still basing your menu around meat, you're just the same sad old whore who thinks the latest flashy negligee will suddenly make her attractive again.

17 DEAD FROM HOGS IN SW CHINA

What the heck is up with this? "Mysterious disease kills 17 in southwest China" says this Reuters story: "Authorities in southwest China are investigating a mysterious disease that has killed 17 farm workers and left 41 others ill after they handled sick or dead livestock, state media said on Monday." But local authorities and the WHO are pooh-poohing the concept that this could be bird- or swine-flu related. "The deaths were probably caused by a bacteria that spreads among pigs, the state-run China Daily quoted Zeng Huajin, a senior official with the Sichuan provincial health department, as saying." I sure wish I could trust the state-run China Daily any more than I trust the USDA...

ANOTHER BLACK EYE FOR ANIMAL STUDIES

Add Vioxx, the infamous pain reliever that was withdrawn for doubling the risk of heart attacks and strokes, to the rogues' gallery of medicines and additives that were given the wrong bill of health thanks to animal studies. This is being underscored by a lawsuit by a PCRM member charging that Merck "relied too heavily on animal studies to support the drug's safety" even in the face of a 2000 study where "Vioxx had five times the rate of heart attacks among users as naproxen." Stay tuned.

STUDY: CHICKENS THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE

A study published in the latest Animal Behavior says that "Chickens do not just live in the present, but can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control, something previously attributed only to humans and other primates," says this Discovery News article. The researchers tested hens with colored buttons. When the birds pecked on one of the buttons, they received a food reward. If the chicken waited two to three seconds, it received a small amount of food. If the bird held out for 22 seconds, it received a "jackpot" that paid out with much more to eat. Hens chose to wait and hold out for more 9 out of 10 times.

Just another indication that our mantra of "that's what separates us from the animals" (and its corrolary, "that's why it's OK to exploit animals") is woefully out of date and, essentially, fictitious.

MYSTERIOUS MISSING MAD COW TESTS

Here's a story that went under the radar: "A key lawmaker is raising concerns that farmers and ranchers are burying dead cattle rather than sending them to processing plants where they would be tested for mad cow disease." OK, the lawmaker is Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House agricultural appropriations sub-committee - but since she's a Democrat, pundits wrote this off as more partisan bickering.

Yet buried in the story is this tiny nugget: "Critics of the testing program, including the department's own inspector general, have said the testing is missing many high-risk cattle, including those that are disposed of on farms." Um, whazzat? The USDA INSPECTOR GENERAL has said that high-risk cattle are not being tested? No word on wether she concurs with this specific claim: DeLauro said in a letter this week to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns that "evidence is mounting" that the high-risk cattle the USDA claims to be testing "are really being disposed of on ranches and farms across the country."

As usual, this question has been ignored by the mainstream press. It might be good to get some answers on whether this is happening, don'tcha think?

UPDATE 7/22: Just noticed this story that's somewhat related - Like the US, the UK may not have succeeded banning ruminant feed back in the '90s. "A cluster of cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Mad cow disease, has raised fears that contaminated feed is still being used in Britain. Three young dairy cows born long after the 1996 ban on contaminated feed are the second such BSE cluster found in England. Scientists said the occurrence of a second cluster of BSE in young cattle strongly suggests the cases were not a statistical fluke and contaminated feed caused the outbreaks."

UPDATE 7/23: Now that the U.S.-Canada border is reopened, there's still more agita: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture is questioning the legality of an order by Gov. Brian Schweitzer that would result in a $3 to $5 fee on Canadian cattle crossing the border destined for Montana. Schweitzer said on Thursday that he would require additional checks by veterinarians now that cattle shipments from Canada have resumed, and he estimated the cost would be $3 to $5 a head. He cited lingering concerns about importing cattle from a country that has reported three cases of mad cow disease during the past two years." Riiiiiight. Because that's so different from a country that has reported two cases of mad cow disease during the past two years! US ranchers, get wise now: The calls are coming from inside the house.

STILL MORE ABOUT THAT ZOO

The Lincoln Park Zoo seems to be trying valiantly to wrest from the National Zoo the title of "Worst-Run Zoo in America." A new report brings to light additional recent animal deaths that were previously un- or under-reported, including: "Meadow, a cow euthanized in June 2004 after she was suspected of having tuberculosis. A postmortem exam found no evidence of TB. A baby marmoset fell face down in flowing water and drowned in April. The audit team called it 'an unfortunate accident' that could occur in the wild. A heart defect killed a 3-day-old lion cub in December 2004." The latest fiasco was the deaths of three langurs who died in May when they were moved into an area where they could grab, or were thrown, some toxic yew plants growing near the exhibit.

Additionally, the bombshell that "Lincoln Park Zoo officials were given an advance copy of the findings" and that "after input from the zoo, the report was changed before public release for what the audit team called 'greater accuracy and clarity'" is noted only because a PETA representative draws attention to it. There's still more crap to flush out of this system, that's for sure.

SIMMONS: McDONALD'S LIES

Remember that story about top hip-hop designers partnering with Mickey D's to make uniforms that will paper over the mind-numbing dronelike nature of employees' jobs? Oddly, the designers list included Russell Simmons, who now denies having anything to do with the project: "Russell Simmons, the man who made hip hop hot, angrily denies rumours that he is sewing new uniforms for McDonald's. 'Not only is it not true, I am not in talks with them, I'm a vegan! It goes against my principles,' he said at an in-store appearance in Vancouver." Good to see he's not the mercenary sellout the previous article(s) had implictly portrayed. Now, howzabout a correction in all the papers in which that piece ran?

GEORGE WILL: I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT...

It's always amusing to hear meat-eaters claim they have "no problem" facing the fact that they're eating corpses of unfairly, unnecessarily killed sentient beings, because we all know otherwise, and we know that it's imperative for most people to keep up a wall of denial about it. In this piece from Newsweek discussing the latest from Matthew Scully, George Will lays that on the table: "If you value your peace of mind, not to mention your breakfast bacon, you should not read Scully's essay 'Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism-for Animals.'" He goes on: "Yes, of course: You don't want to think about this. Who does?" and: "You were warned not to read this. Have a nice day."

Will even points out the duplicity in humans' excuses for meat addiction: Scully "knows that man is not only a rational creature but a rationalizing creature, putting his intellectual nimbleness in the service of his desires" - and dances perilously close to the ideas of Gary Francione: "It is the sense that even though the law can regard an individual's animal as the individual's property, there nevertheless are certain things the individual cannot do to that property. Which means it is property with a difference. The difference is the capacity for enjoyment and suffering. So why, Scully asks, is cruelty to a puppy appalling and cruelty to livestock by the billions a matter of social indifference? There cannot be any intrinsic difference of worth between a puppy and a pig."

This is all old news to us, of course. What's notable is that it's being put forward by one of the nation's most famous Conservative pundits on the pages of one of our country's biggest newsweeklies.

BACK AGAIN

Been working on the podcast. More on that later. Let's get to some blog items, though.

RADICAL NEW THEORY

Here's some journalism-flavored writing, complete with punch line:

Vegetarianism 'could help climate' "A scientist claims ditching meaty meals in favour of nut roasts could do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions than burning less oil and gas. The radical new theory argues livestock animals bred to be eaten produce 21% of the carbon dioxide attributed to humans. So by trading the traditional Sunday roast for an environmentally-friendly mung bean casserole, damaging emissions can be slashed. The innovative new theory would mean the mass slaughter of all livestock."

It's radical! It's innovative! It's mass slaughter!

Too bad for the livestock, which, if not for this radical new innovative theory, would be.. mass slaughtered.

THE LONG WEEKEND

Boy, wasn't it? So long it almost seems like it's next week already.

No matter. Let's clear out some of the itemettes we have loitering around from June...

Vegan Options More Popular Than Ever on College Campuses; ARAMARK Focuses on Meeting Customer Needs in Honor of Vegan World Day

ARAMARK nationwide research has revealed that, out of more than 100,000 college students surveyed, nearly a quarter said finding vegan meals on campus -- which contain no meat, fish, poultry or other products derived from animals such as dairy, eggs or honey -- was important to them. To better serve its customers and in honor of Vegan World Day on June 21st, ARAMARK (NYSE:RMK), a worldwide provider of managed services, has increased its number of vegan menu items on campuses and continues to work with campus vegetarian and vegan resource groups to meet customer demand.

Great... this is good news. But... what the hell is Vegan World Day?

No more circus elephants in city?

"'Bringing circus elephants to Chicago would be difficult, if not impossible, under an ordinance being developed by a North Side alderman. Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) said she has asked the city's law department to draft the ordinance, which she aims to introduce this month. Under Smith's proposal, circuses would have to provide 10 acres of exercise area -- half indoor, half outdoor -- for each elephant they bring to Chicago. That requirement, Smith acknowledges, would be "difficult" to meet."

While I enjoy the image of circus owners having to jump through flaming hoops to get their reward, this proposal is both simple common sense and a political impossibility.

Film features vegan athletes

This includes Tonya Kay, whom some of you saw at Summerfest.

Some scientists want to shave that milk mustache

Good to see PCRM's suit getting more coverage. This one quotes Walter Willett, chair of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health as saying there's no credible evidence of milk working as a weight-loss tool. "In fact, there is better evidence to suggest that recommendations to increase dairy consumption could lead to weight gain." Then, "It's easy to be skeptical of dairy-industry claims and academics who are funded by the industry they are researching," this article candidly points out, but then weasels back to "objectivity" by suggesting we rally 'round the beleagured industry. Disappointing, but ya takes what ya gets.

Indonesia plans to ban U.S. beef imports

I love this one: USDA Fails To Figure Out Why Tiger Attacked Illusionist Roy Horn

The tiger-was-hungry theory was ruled out. And there was no proof that the animal was deliberately provoked by someone in the audience, or that a terrorist sprayed it with a behavior-altering scent, or that it was unhinged by a woman with a beehive hairdo. But federal investigators still do not know what led a Bengal tiger to attack illusionist Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy during a performance nearly two years ago.

Hmmmm..... now this is a crazy idea, but... did anyone examine the possible motivation that IT'S A GODDAMN WILD ANIMAL???

And in a related note of moronic human behavior jeopardizing animals' and humans' lives...

Horses die as publicity stunt ends in stampede

It was an image meant to rekindle the romance of the Old West: A herd of wild horses brought into Calgary to mark Alberta's centennial. But officials with the Calgary Stampede were facing a public relations nightmare yesterday after at least nine horses died in a horrific stampede when the animals spooked while crossing a bridge into the city. "We were trying recreate some of the romance of the old trail rides," said Lindsey Galloway, communications manager for the Stampede. Instead, those involved faced a terrifying spectacle of being caught in the middle of a charging mass of horseflesh.

Here's a tip, folks: When a publicity stunt involves animals and is called a "Stampede," you can be pretty sure the people involved have thought this through about as thoroughly as they have your bodily safety. Might wanna stay away.

And to cap it all off, still another story about people who, you'd think, wouldn't be put in charge of animals' lives.

Another polar bear dies at St. Louis Zoo

For the second time in five weeks, a polar bear at the St. Louis Zoo has died, leaving the zoo with just one of the animals, zoo officials said Friday. Penny, a 19-year-old polar bear, died Thursday night of peritonitis. Zoo officials feared something was wrong when she refused to eat.



An examination Friday morning determined the bear was, unknown to zookeepers, carrying two dead fetuses that should have been born in the fall, said Bill Houston, assistant general curator.

So... they had the bear in a situation where she got pregnant... yet never checked to see if she was pregnant afterward? What, did they just wait around and say, nope, she's not craving pickles and ice cream, so we're OK? And... they feared something was wrong when she refused to eat? Yeah, that's about as strong an indication as you can get without doing any, you know, actual medical examination as one might be expected for large wild animals put into situations like this. Good to know those in charge of all these divere types of animals' lives have as much diagnostic expertise as every pet owner in America: She refused to eat. Something, I fear, is wrong.

OK, that's enough, back to regular bloggin on Monday (I hope).