Phillip Island – As the local community unites on a plan to protect Phillip Island’s penguin population from the avian flu outbreak, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote to Mayor Clare Le Serve urging Bass Coast Shire Council to implement a policy that removes chicken flesh and eggs from council menus, buildings, and events. PETA also called on the council to turn its back on speciesism, a prejudice in which some individuals are valued more than others.
“In all the ways that matter, chickens are no different from penguins – to whom they are related,” writes PETA Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “Both species are intelligent and curious individuals who feel pain and emotions, such as fear and joy. Chickens can distinguish between the faces of more than 100 fellow flockmates, and they form strong friendships. They communicate via some 24 vocalisations, see in full colour, and even experience rapid eye movement (REM) while dreaming, just like humans do.”
The highly pathogenic H5N1 and H7 strains of avian flu have been decimating wild bird populations around the world, and since May, Australian poultry farms have been ravaged by the disease, leading to the killing of hundreds of thousands of farmed birds in an attempt to stem its spread. The crowded conditions in which animals are raised for food are breeding grounds for such pathogens, and avian flu tears through densely populated, highly polluted chicken and egg farms just as swine flu originates on farms where pigs are confined amid their own waste. Aside from being highly contagious and deadly to birds, zoonotic pathogens can “jump” to humans. As PETA points out in its letter, eating vegan is the best way everyone can help subvert global pandemics arising from animal exploitation.
“Avian flu isn’t some mystery illness we’re powerless against,” continues the letter. “It’s driven by the appetite for bird flesh. Every time you reach for chicken nuggets, breasts, burgers, or eggs instead of the plethora of readily available plant-based upgrades, you fund the confinement of animals in filthy conditions and, inevitably, the incubation of deadly pathogens.”
PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
PETA’s letter to the council is available here.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
#
The post PETA to Bass Coast Council: Pluck Chicken From Plates to Protect Penguins appeared first on PETA Australia.