What Causes Pandemics?

There's a long history of deadly pandemics that are, like COVID-19, deeply rooted in our treatment of animals — especially the 70 billion who are raised and killed for food each year around the world.

While much media coverage has focused on wildlife wet markets where rare and 'exotic' animals are bought, sold and killed, confining this conversation to the often-illegal wildlife trade ignores the breeding grounds for disease created by industrial food systems globally.

It also ignores the large-scale destruction of habitats that is forcing wild animals out of their homes and into closer proximity with people and other animals.

All of these issues need equal scrutiny.  Animal protection and conservation groups are urging the World Health Organisation to call for a ban on wildlife markets and curb the illegal wildlife trade and ending factory farming — the number one cause of animal cruelty in the world today.

As a species, we haven't always been great at learning from mistakes of the past but that doesn't mean we can't be this time. It's heartening to see some deeper conversations emerging about our relationship with animals; a relationship that is in urgent need of repair — not only for them, but for all of us.

Industry Claims Torching the Udders of Dairy Cows Is Painless, By Robert Grillo

Just when I thought I knew all the common, standard industry practices in dairy farming, I find something even more bizarre and cruel. The sound in this video is said to be “turned off” since it is for “trade show purposes” but one wonders if the sound of the cows confined to stalls and having their udders torched would reveal how unpleasant this experience is for the animals. The claim that the cows feel no pain from having a flame applied to their sensitive udders is “udderly” ridiculous. We share the same kind of pain receptors with cows and just as with us, the nipples are one of the most sensitive areas of the body.

The video justifies the torching of cows’ udders as follows:

“The UdderSinge uses a low temperature flame passed 2-4″ below the udder and belly that removes hair quickly and painlessly. Removing hair aids in creating a healthier cow by reducing the occurrence of mastitis in the cow’s udder.

Mastitis is a painful disease that causes painful swelling and infection in the udder and is potentially fatal for the cow. Removing udder hair decreases somatic cell counts [blood cells] in milk thus making the product safer for the consumer.”

Yet it is the relentless cycle of forced pregnancy and lactation, and the unnaturally high rates of milk production, that cows in the dairy industry are subjected to, combined with being “nursed” by harsh mechanical equipment rather than their own babies, that causes mastitis to be so pervasive.

Add this to the list of atrocities inflicted on animals in the dairy industry: dehorning; tail-docking; spiked nose-ringing; sexual violation and industry-approved bestiality; separation of families; slaughter of young dairy cows when their milk production declines; and slaughter of calves: all so we can steal the mothers’ milk of other animals when the only milk we ever needed came from our own human mothers, and then we were weaned.