Two new op-eds expose avian influenza bailouts & heatstroke-based mass killing ahead of big sports ball event
By Crystal Heath @ 2024-02-10T20:57 (+2)
We love it when major newspapers finally publish words about the mass atrocities we are committing against other species—today we have two!
Hopefully, this mainstream coverage will increase outrage about the billions of dollars we are forced to pay to support the salaries of wealthy slaughter industry executives, whether we purchase their products or not. Please help me share these op-eds widely on social media, and consider using all appropriate trending sports ball-y hashtags.
The first is by second-year Utah State University and Our Honor representative, Larrea Cottingham in the Salt Lake Tribue describing the high costs of the chicken slaughter industry, not just to the birds themselves, but to the workers, wildlife, and taxpayers forced to turn over billions of dollars to support the salaries of wealthy industry executives whose risky business model threatens public health.
“Our Honor, a veterinary organization dedicated to ending the suffering of all animals, sent FOIA requests to The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the United States Department of Agriculture and found that, since the beginning of the HPAI outbreak, Jennie-O Turkey Store received more than $85 million in bailouts for avian influenza, while Tyson Foods received $29 million. Both companies resorted to using VSD+ to kill their birds while the combined 2023 compensation of their two CEOs summed $20 million dollars.”
Link to the Salt Lake Tribune article
The second is in the Mercury News and East Bay Times by me, elaborating on our recent discovery that Mike Weber, the high-welfare cage-free egg producer of Weber Family Farms in Petaluma, California, killed his birds en masse via heatstroke during an avian influenza outbreak after failing to put plans in place to end the lives of his birds using less cruel methods. He received nearly $5 million in taxpayer-funded bailouts to compensate him for exterminating his birds.
“The mass killing of animals via heatstroke should not be accepted as an unchangeable fact. We must stop incentivizing sociopathy and cruelty and instead support slaughter-free farmers and businesses that embody the values current intensive slaughter-based production systems lack: responsibility and compassion.”