It’s Time To Take Pandemics Off The Menu

Over the past century, a host of infectious diseases have spread rapidly after jumping from animals to humans.

• In 1918, a flu pandemic infected half a billion people and killed 50-100 million people worldwide. It originated in birds.¹
• In 2003, the SARS virus – thought to have originated from a live animal market² – spread to over 8,000 people worldwide and cost the global economy an estimated $40 billion.³
• In 2009, the H1N1 “swine flu” – believed to have originated in pigs – infected around 60.8 million people.⁴
• MERS, another deadly coronavirus, emerged straight out of an industrializing camel sector in the Middle East.⁵
• And in 2013, the H7N9 “bird flu” emerged from poultry, sickening more than 1,500 people and killing roughly 40 percent of them.⁶

Now, in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the world is facing its most serious public health crisis in generations.

Our long history of exploiting animals for their meat, milk, eggs and skins means there is also a long history of serious illness and widespread deaths in people: Tuberculosis is thought to have been acquired from the domestication of goats; measles from cows;⁷ whooping cough from domesticated pigs; typhoid from domesticating chickens; leprosy from water buffalo; and the cold virus from cows or horses.⁸

Most of the meat, dairy and eggs we consume today come from factory farms, which are hotspots for emerging flu pandemics. In order for animals to have a chance at surviving amidst the filth and squalor, they are administered a potent cocktail of drugs, which include antibiotics. This overuse is also deadly: Diseases become resistant to the drugs, superbugs emerge, and we are left with nothing that can fight them.

This is far too big a price to pay.

Preventing another pandemic may come down to what we value most: the safety of our families OR the taste of animal flesh. Join us and #TakePandemicsOffTheMenu by eliminating animals from your diet: try vegan today.