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Egypt: Animal groups defend pigs

May 31, 2009, 1:11AM MT

By Sharon St. Joan

More help is needed

More help is needed

Egypt is the only country in the world that has chosen to kill pigs in response to H1N1, or "swine flu." No pigs in Egypt have tested positive for "swine flu," which is a disease that, in any case, has nothing to do with pigs.

Animal welfare groups in Egypt have taken every measure they can to try to stop the senseless slaughter of the pigs.

Dina Zulfikar, one of the coordinators of the AWAR group and chairperson of Animal Aid Egypt, a new organization in Alexandria--and Mona Khalil, of ESMA (Egyptian Society for Mercy for Animals) have written to Best Friends outlining some of the many steps they've been taking to try to save the lives of the pigs.

Ahmed El Sherbiny of ESAF (The Egyptian Society of Animal Friends) has been very actively engaged in working on behalf of the pigs. The Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt (SPARE) has also been campaigning for the pigs, as have many other Egyptian groups and individuals.

AAE, ESAF, ESMA and AWAR have filed a court case against several Governors: the Minister of Agriculture, the Governors of Cairo, Giza, Helwan, and the Chief of Governates for the way that they have handled the inappropriate culling of the pigs. The court case has not yet been heard.

These groups also contacted Dr. Mofeed Shehab, who is the Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils. They first spoke with his Office Manager, and he later returned the call to Dina Zulfikar, saying that he had sent memoranda to all governors calling for an immediate halt to the killing of the pigs.

Standing up for animals

Dr. Shehab stated that he had spoken out in parliament against the killing of the pigs, but many in parliament had strongly disagreed with him, claiming that the matter did not fall under his authority. Dr. Shehab pointed out that, of all the governments in the world, only the Egyptian government was killing pigs, in response to H1N1.

Another memo, issued by Prime Minister Nazif, followed on the heels of Dr. Shehab's memo. These two memos appeared to have some effect. Thanks to both Prime Minister Nazif and Dr. Shehab for turning the tide and slowing the slaughter of the pigs.

We are being told that the killing of pigs has not altogether stopped and it is still continuing, although at a slower pace.

Pigs are generally kept by poor farmers who are also garbage collectors. Mostly they are Christian. Around 10% of Egyptians are Christian, with around 90% being Moslem. The Moslems do not keep pigs since it would be against their religious beliefs. The pigs are fed garbage, so they help with garbage disposal, and they are killed for meat.

The kind of slaughter that normally takes place is certainly far from kind. However, the ways government agents have been killing pigs, in recent weeks, are exceptionally cruel.

When governments undertake mass culling of animals to prevent disease, their methods tend to be extremely barbaric. The OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health), has set standards for how animals are to be killed in the event that that is necessary as a disease prevention measure, and these standards are not being met.

OIE and WHO oppose culling pigs

Both the OIE (World Organization for animal Health) and WHO (the World Health Organization) have said that the culling of pigs is entirely ineffective as a way of preventing swine flu.

There has been very widespread coverage in the Egyptian media--both in print and on television, airing the viewpoints of the animal welfare groups.

The Egyptian groups have insisted that "culling pigs is not going to prevent the danger of the flu, that none all of the countries already having records of human infections got rid of the pigs or culled any of them. That even if it is necessary to do that it has to be done in a humane manner."

So far 145,000 pigs have been killed, 4,000 of these were slaughtered by regular slaughtering methods, and all the rest were killed by government agents. Depending on who you ask, the numbers of pigs left in Egypt may still be 150,000---or may only be around 20,000.

Mona Khalil writes, "Yes, the killing is still going on. Unfortunately, NGOs here are very restricted due to the fact we have no law on which we can depend in our fight and struggle for animals in general and pigs in particular."

A broad-based animal welfare law was introduced two years ago, but it has never been voted on. If it had been enacted, the massacre of the pigs could never have taken place.

Robert Blumberg, who is now back in the U.S., but who was one of the co-founders and is an honorary board member of the MENAW organization in Egypt, expressed the view that, "If the animal welfare legislation had been passed two years ago, all this would not have happened. Hopefully, we will see the passing of the legislation speeded up."

In the meantime, the pigs still need help. To take action to halt completely the killing of the pigs, please see below.

(Further news, stemming from the recent meeting in Paris of the OIE will follow soon.)

What you can do

To help 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 in Egypt- because it is inhumane and because it serves no purpose in preventing influenza A-H1N1.

Please write to:

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

Egyptian animal welfare organizations:

AWAR Group (Animal Welfare Awareness Research Group of Egypt)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awar/

ESMA (Egyptian Society for Mercy for Animals)
http://esmaegypt.org

EMRO (Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization)
http://emaurescue.org/

SPARE (Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt)
http://sparealife.org/

To visit the websites of, and for contact information for, ESAF and other Egyptian animal welfare groups, please go to
MENAW - the Middle East Network for Animal Welfare
http://www.menaw.net/indexB.htm

Posted by Sharon St Joan, Best Friends Network

Top Photo: Fromout / Dreamstime.com
Second Photo: Zaharov / Dreamstime.com

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