| Avian influenza has become a serious global concern and authorities are desperate to find ways to contain a possible epidemic. However, reason and compassion must prevail throughout the hysteria and confusion.
During the various bird flu outbreaks, we have witnessed disturbing images of mass culls of birds - some methods of killing include burning, burying and suffocation. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) has highlighted the need to campaign for humane methods of emergency slaughter, and to abide by the guidelines agreed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The SPCA shares this concern.
In early November 2005, the OIE, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) held a joint meeting to discuss global strategies for managing the spread of avian influenza. As urged by Compassion in World Farming, the SPCA wrote a letter to the Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) - with copies to the Ministry of National Development and the Ministry of Health - to urge Singapore to highlight the need to make the humane dispatch of animals a priority during the discussions.
In this letter, it was stated:
"The mass culling of animals always leads to conflict between fast killing and humane slaughter methods. We have seen in some countries affected by avian flu that birds have been drowned, burned or buried alive. It is always completely unacceptable, even with the scale of the current outbreak, to allow any sentient being to be killed by such cruel methods, and by untrained or inexperienced personnel. We cannot neglect animal welfare even in times of crisis."
The SPCA hopes that the Singapore government will use every opportunity, especially at the joint WHO/FAO/OIE meeting in November, to urge that governments and agencies faced with undertaking emergency slaughter for disease control use methods of killing which fulfill the principles of humane slaughter, and that adhere to the globally recognised standards for humane killing for disease control agreed unanimously by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and its 167 member countries in May 2005."
Read about bird flu and factory farming:
Ethicist and animal welfare advocate Peter Singer makes the link between battery farming and bird flu in his article 'Who Pays for Bird Flu?' (published on 12 Nov 2005, Straits Times).
The article can be assessed at
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/singer5/English
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