(Edit to moderators: this could be better in the 'In the news' section)
Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu
Excerpt:
Quote:
CAIRO – Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said.
The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the government order.
"It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses," Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.
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Although I consume pork (Save that for another thread, I really would not like to discuss vegetarianism), I do feel that Egypts actions are reckless, illogical, useless, and cruel. H1N1 does not spread through the consumption of pork, and it is probably very hard for it to spread from pig to person. H1N1 is now human-to-human transmittable and requires no contact with swine, so I think that Egypt either is being stupid, or they are trying to do religious retribution upon pigs, which are deemed dirty by Islam.