Bird flu hits UK poultry farm

[Terekins]

Originally Posted by muffin

Hmmm....brings back horrible memories of burning heaps of cows and sheep carcasses during the foot and mouth crisis. A lot of those animals left in heaps for later 'disposal' weren't actually dead.

Just wait for farmers to start cashing in on insurance for lost birds. During foot and mouth some farmers poured boiling water into their animals' mouths to simulate the symptoms and get a payout.

I wish I hadn't your post, Muffin, it's so upsetting. I'm at the point now where I can only handle so much knowledge when it comes to animal abuse. It literally haunts me for hours after reading or hearing something like this. Can you even begin to imagine being able to DO something like this?? Absolutely horrible.

[muffin]

Sorry Terekins, didn't mean to upset you. You're right. Some things no one wants to know. What I don't understand is how farmers could do that to their own animals for money. They might be 'stock' but they look after them daily- you'd think they'd have some feelings for them. It's truly awful what some humans do to animals for fun, never mind for profit. I wish I could catch them and do the same things back to them.

[Terekins]

Oh no, Muffin, it's ok I'm glad these things are being brought out into the open. It just bothers me so much. I guess that's part of the frustration I feel a lot. How do you help these animals, and stay sane? I admire people who can think about this stuff day in and day out in order to make a difference, I wish I could too. I was part of a local animal rights collective a while back, and I had to leave because I just couldn't read and hear about the horrible things that happen, without it consuming me.
Thanks

[muffin]

I know what you mean. When I read some things in newspapers about animal abuse in my own country, and especially my own city it horrifies me. I won't tell you about them, but the fact that there are people loose out there who did them is scary enough.

With the foot and mouth outbreak there were definitely farmers who were deliberately infecting their animals in order to get compensation. It was farmers who had spend years building up stocks of rare breeds that really lost out. It was a huge tragedy all round though for the animals.