Dear Editor:
Once again Jeff Fleming is using misinformation to further his agenda (and that of several animal welfare groups) to end animal farming.
He has to date, blamed animal agriculture for every affliction known to man, global warming and a violent society.
The viruses that he mentions have nothing to do with animal agriculture; dengue fever, yellow fever and West Nile virus are all spread by mosquitos.
West Nile virus infects mainly horses, but can infect humans also. Ebola and HIV are spread by monkeys. I guess if Mr. Fleming's reasoning for ending animal farming is that animals are vectors for disease then I guess we would have to get rid of all monkeys and mosquitos. As much as I'd like to see mosquitos eradicated I'm sure it would screw up a food train.
The two influenzas he mentions, Asian and Spanish, pandemics were never tied to an animal origin.
Just a few years ago the world panicked over the bird flu and the swine flu pandemics that never materialized.
I do take exception to Fleming's description of factory farming. He has obviously never been on one or any sort of hog farm for that matter. While every hog farm is different on the whole, hogs in confinement are not sick, crowded or highly stressed. Not anymore than they would be free range.
Humans and hogs can get the same kind of flu but it is more likely that an infected human would give the flu to the hog rather than vice versa.
The CDC recently stated that the public has more of a chance getting the flu virus from the fresh food they eat, the kind that gets sneezed on by sick preparers. You cannot get a virus from the meat of an infected animal. By the time the animal reaches the grocery store the virus is long dead.
As humans go we have done a pretty good job of destroying our immune systems all on our own.
Our germophobic practices no longer allow children to develop an immune system before the critical age of three. The WHO is right about more pandemics as populations with under developed immune systems prevail.
Use a little common sense. Ignore Fleming's fanaticism and save the animals.