New Delhi: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has objected to an article in ThePrint titled “PETA slammed for ‘being racist, spreading misinformation’ over coronavirus tweet” on the grounds that it is “misleading”.
The article, published on 23 March, reported how PETA had drawn criticism from Twitter users for a picture that said: “COVID-19 wouldn’t exist in a vegan world”.
In an email dated 27 March, Poorva Joshipura, senior vice-president, PETA Foundation, claimed that the article was “misleading” and should “be taken down and replaced with the truth”.
Joshipura said ThePrint had “painstakingly” selected Twitter users “with a certain view, in this case those who agree with PETA US’ posts, presumably based on their meat habits and not science, to influence public opinion. That’s dangerous and not cool.”
ThePrint, in its report, had said “the suggestion that pandemics like coronavirus are caused due to meat consumption resulted in people accusing the animal rights organisation of being racist and spreading misinformation”.
The article also addressed the question of whether a change in meat-eating habits would limit the transmission of diseases from animals to human, with some experts arguing that just living in proximity to disease-carrying animals could also lead to such situations.
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The problem with meat consumption
In its email, PETA cited an article in the Scientific American, titled “One Root Cause of Pandemics Few People Think About: It’s our seemingly insatiable desire to eat meat”. The report argues that “the conditions in which we often farm animals today — crowding tens of thousands of animals wing-to-wing or snout-to-snout — serve as ‘amplifiers’ for viral pandemics”. Moreover, it cites Michael Greger, author of ‘Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching’, who “calls factory farming a ‘perfect storm environment’ for infectious diseases”.
In fact, the American Journal of Public Health in 2007 had noted, “It is curious, therefore, that changing the way humans treat animals — most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten — is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure.”
Possibly referring to the source of coronavirus outbreak, which is believed to have been a wet market in Wuhan where a variety of animal-derived products and meats are available, the email said, “…places like live animal meat markets and factory farms — crowded farms that rear poultry or other animals by the hundreds, thousands or even millions — make the disease jump between species very easy”.
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Covid-19 not the first disease linked to meat consumption
The email also listed diseases that have been linked to meat production or milk consumption in the past, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bird flu, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), swine flu, Ebola, HIV etc.
PETA pointed out that SARS originated in a similar wet market as coronavirus, ebola and HIV were linked to bushmeat (wild animal meat) while MERS is believed to have originated from consumption of raw milk or camel slaughter.
“Would these diseases have jumped the species barrier to humans in a vegan world? With what public health scientists believe about their origins in humans, the answer is no,” Joshipura said.
Moreover, in the case of ebola, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “In Africa human infections have been associated with hunting, butchering and processing meat from infected animals,” the PETA email added.
Stefan Lovgren on National Geographic had said, “It is now widely accepted that humans contracted HIV from chimpanzees, probably by butchering them for bush meat.”
For MERS, which is also a type of coronavirus, PETA explained that the virus has been detected in dromedary camels.
“We can continue to bury our heads in the sand about the truth of meat’s role in zoonotic diseases in humans if we want. Doing so, may allow some of us to eat meat guilt-free, but it won’t do anything to stop the next zoonotic pandemic that may be even more deadly than the one we’re suffering now,” PETA said.
A zoonotic disease, or zoonoses, is when animals carry harmful germs that can spread to people and cause illness.
Also read: One thing common in most pandemics: They begin their deadly work in Asia or Africa
It’s generally accepted that eating animals carries with it an increased risk of disease. Simple thought experiment. Consider the regulations required for meat consumption; not just modern but ancient too. We’ve known, and practiced this for thousands of years.
These wet markets are disgusting and disease ridden! Exotic animals should not be a food source. Too many animals are being killed! In the photo look how many pigs are hanging, and there are no shoppers! Thank you Peta for showing the abuse in the industry, the overkilling of too many Species! The ignorance of killing more will get you more money instead you get waste, garbage and decreased animal populations.
PETA has become a political terrorist group that wants people to not eat meat at all costs even if it is lying. The facts are this virus came from a bat that infected another animal and was not caused by human beings eating food!
“some experts arguing that just living in proximity to disease-carrying animals could also lead to such situations.” How does one avoid living in proximity to animals, in animal rearing farms.
PETA has a great opportunity to run a campaign against the brutal meat industry and promote vegetarian way of living, and they should NOT miss this opportunity. Many people would be willing to support their campaign with cash and kind.
No many people understand how crazy this organization has become. Forcing vegetarian on someone who does not want it is wrong and lies will not help!