I tore this headline straight from Democracy Arsenal because, well, how could I not? Lorelei Kelly, “a carnivore with constant remorse,” had a great post linking bio-terrorism concerns to animal welfare.
About 75 percent of emerging diseases come from animals, Kelly reports, and dangerous microbes have become “generalists” that bounce around between animals and humans. Avian Flu has been in the news the most lately, but Sars, Anthrax, Ebola and many other nasty bugs started with animals.
Things get even scarier when considering that, in 2004, the world required 21 billion food animals for 6.5 billion people. And trade in exotic animals is second only to illegal drugs. Those make conditions ripe for creating, and transporting, deadly diseases.
“So it’s really the wildlife, domestic animals, human intersection that creates exotic diseases. The more we import them into our midst or crowd them out through over-population, the more we risk ourselves… So the real question is, when is PETA going to hire a national security director?”