The number of confirmed swine flu cases around the globe
continued to rise past 12,000, with at least 86 newly confirmed cases
in the UK, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. The World
Health Organization (WHO) is testing two people for the A H1N1 swine
flu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If confirmed, these would be
the first on the African continent, raising concerns due to
under-funded health services that are already struggling to cope with
malaria and typhoid.
In New Zealand last week, Television New Zealand broadcast an exposé of
a pig factory farm visited by comedian Mike King, a former pork
industry spokesperson who expressed his dismay and sorrow at what he
saw. A similar sentiment spread among New Zealanders, who consider
themselves animal lovers. To continue raising awareness of the inhumane
plight of pigs, several animal rights groups held a peaceful rally
through the streets of Wellington.
Terina Graham, SAFE (Saving Animals From Exploitation) representative,
Vegetarian (F): We’ve just been flooded with e-mails and phone calls
and that saying “I cannot believe this is going on.” With the program
that was aired last week, it was a TV celebrity that had actually
exposed the industry to the public, and he’d been supporting them,
doing advertisements, and he didn’t know. And that has put him off
factory farmed pork so he will not buy factory farmed pork at all. So
the majority of the public have got on board and they too are putting
their foot down. Supermarkets will even tell you themselves that
consumers are not even going near the aisles of pork.
VOICE: We thank Television New Zealand for your timely and sensitive
coverage of the true plight of farmed pigs, and our hats off to New
Zealanders for their prompt and compassionate response. We continue to
pray for the victims of the swine flu and that lives may be spared to
diminish the suffering of loss. May we all look forward to the day when
there is no need for such concern as everyone adopts the clean and
animal-friendly vegan lifestyle.
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