Go veggie to check SARS, says animal rights group

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Go veggie to check SARS, says animal rights group

 

NEW DELHI: Animal rights activists here have come out with what they

call a simple solution to combat the deadly SARS disease -- go

vegetarian.

 

Activists of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA),

led by a member wearing a pig costume and a mask reading " No SARS -

Go Veg " , Monday distributed SARS masks with the message " Say no to

Pig-Farm Germs " in this city's commercial hub of Connaught Place.

 

PETA said the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic that

is causing chaos in China and a number of Southeast Asian countries

had originated in a pig farm.

 

SARS has claimed 613 lives worldwide, mostly in mainland China and

Hong Kong.

 

" What you touch and inhale may be important, but what you pick up

with your fork is even more crucial, " PETA said in a statement

distributed along with the masks.

 

" Like all globe-sweeping flus, the latest killer germ was created on

a factory farm in southern China. Intensively confining animals

creates filth that allows diseases to spread like wildfire.

 

" In India, chickens on factory farms commonly carry listeria,

salmonella, leukosis (chicken cancer), campylobacter and E. coli

bacteria, all of which are transmissible to humans. As people in Asia

eat more meat, they put the rest of the world at risk. In the West,

hundreds of thousands more people go vegetarian every year, " PETA

said in a statement, terming the veggie trend " highly healthy " .

 

It claimed: " SARS isn't the only problem created by eating flesh:

meat-eaters are nine times as likely to be overweight as vegans

(people who consume no animal products whatsoever) and 10 times more

likely to suffer from heart disease.

 

" Although vegetarianism remains popular in India, as more people eat

meat, diseases that have been linked to meat consumption, such as

heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, are occurring more

often, " it added.

 

According to the statement, during the past 30 years, coronary artery

disease in most developed countries came down by 50 percent but

doubled in India.

 

" Adding to this problem is the high incidence of rheumatic heart

disease in India. With at least 50,000 new cases every year, it is

estimated that currently there are more than one million patients

with rheumatic heart disease, " PETA said.

 

" Vegans live, on average, at least seven years longer than meat-

eaters, " it claimed.

 

" The battle against SARS and other diseases begins on our dinner

plates, " the statement quoted PETA chief Anuradha Sawhney as saying.

 

" No more meat means no more outbreaks of diseases spread by farmed

animals, whether from germs or from the cholesterol and fat in their

flesh. "

 

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