News
Killing pigs to prevent swine flu?
May 05, 2009, 3:41AM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
Egyptian animal groups stand up for pigs
Egyptian animal groups stand up for pigs
By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network
Last Wednesday, April 29, the Egyptian government began slaughtering pigs, as a way to prevent swine flu. There have not been any cases of swine flu (now more correctly called A-H1N1) in Egypt.
An Associated Press story, by Maamoun Youssef, on Google News last week, "Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu," reports that Egypt has begun slaughtering an estimated 300,000 pigs.
North of Cairo, farmers threw stones at the vehicles of Ministry of Health workers who had come to their district to kill the pigs--shattering some windshields and forcing the government workers to turn back without killing the pigs. However, other pigs have been slaughtered.
The pigs are generally kept by the Coptic Christian community, which represents around 10% of Egyptians. Muslim Egyptians generally consider pigs to be unclean and do not eat pork.
Many of the Christian pig farmers are also garbage collectors, who use the pigs to help with garbage disposal, since the pigs will eat some of the garbage.
What does WHO say?
The World Health Organization has specifically stated that pigs do not pose any threat of passing on the H1N1 virus to humans, and the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) has spoken out against the culling of pigs. "Swine flu" is actually composed of elements of swine, bird, and human flu. In any case, this strain of H1N1 is passed from human to human.
The Egyptian Parliament and Cabinet approved the mass slaughter of the pigs in Egypt, which was announced by Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly.
In 2003, during an outbreak in Egypt of "bird flu," 26 million birds were killed--mostly chickens. Egypt has the one of the world's highest human death tolls from bird flu.
Wherever there are mass killings of animals--especially in the midst of the hysteria that surrounds the threat of human disease--the conditions in which the animals are killed tend to be exceptionally inhumane.
OIE guidelines
The OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) has issued guidelines to follow in the event that governments decide that animals need to be killed because of the threat of illness to humans. To read these guidelines, please see the link below.
Apparently these guidelines are not being followed in Egypt as the pigs are being slaughtered. It is safe to say that the guidelines are rarely followed anywhere in cases where animals are seen to present a threat of disease to humans.
Animal groups in Egypt speak up for pigs
Ahmed El Sherbiny, the Chairperson of three animal welfare organizations in Egypt, has written the following letter to Bernard Vallat, President OIE:
Dear Mr. Bernard Vallat,
President of OIE, World
Organization for Animal Health
I am writing to you on my behalf as the chairperson of ESAF, The Egyptian Society of Animal Friends and EFAW, The Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare and MENAW, Middle East Network for Animal Welfare.
Many countries have voted to accept the OIE’s Guidelines on Killing of Animals for Disease Control Purposes and the Guidelines on Slaughter of Animals.
My question is how does OIE monitor and insure that Guidelines are applied, formally incorporated into their domestic laws and enforced, to our understanding many countries are not applying OIE rules to many issues in the Guidelines, what is the point if there is no enforcement and monitoring, relying on a moral obligation is not enough.
We look forward to your early reply and hope this question will receive an answer. In the past we have communicated our thoughts and opinion but we have never received any reply.
Best regards
Ahmed El Sherbiny
Attorney at Law
Chairperson ESAF, EFAW and MENAW
Thanks to these Egyptian organizations for speaking out on behalf of the pigs--and inquiring as to the reasons why OIE's guidelines lack any power of enforcement--or even monitoring!
The significance of the issue at hand in Egypt at the moment, concerning the killing of the pigs, is not one of Muslims against Christians, or vice versa, nor is it the fact that the pigs were probably destined to be killed sooner or later to become pork for dinner.
The immediate issue is the suffering of the animals, which is even more excessive in situations of mass killings, than it usually is when animals are slaughtered in more normal circumstances.
What you can do
If you'd like to speak out on behalf of the pigs in Egypt, please contact the following two government ministers. In order to be effective, please write a brief, polite email or letter.
Please ask the Egyptian government to stop killing the pigs, or, at least, to halt slaughtering the pigs until the OIE guidelines can be followed.
Please write, call, or fax:
The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation:
Mr. Amin Ahmed Mohamed Othman Abaza
5 Hunting Club St. Dokki- Giza
Phone: 33372253-33372364-33372866
Fax: 37498128
http://www.agri.gov.eg
The Egyptian Health Minister:
Dr. Hatem Mostafa Mostafa El-Gabaly
3 Magles El Shaab St., Kasr El Aini St.Cairo
Phone: 27940526-27941507
Fax: 27953966
Email: moh@idsc.gov.eg
http://www.mohp.gov.eg
Please visit the website of
MENAW - the Middle East Network for Animal Welfare
http://www.menaw.net/indexB.htm
To read the AP article on Google news, by Maamoun Youssef, "Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu," please go to
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jc_pijXYi6E50wDepameI2ZTf9iAD97S7UPG2
To read the OIE Guidelines, "Killing of animals for?disease control purposes," please go to
http://www.oie.int/eng/normes/mcode/en_chapitre_1.7.6.htm
To read the April 2009 OIE article, "The OIE strongly counsels against the culling of pigs," please go to
http://www.oie.int/eng/press/en_090430.htm
Photos:
Top photo: © Jerryx / Dreamstime.com
Second photo: © Ankevanwyk / Dreamstime.com