Bird Flu October 26, 2005
Posted by jewaira in Dear Jewaira, Opinion.12 comments
Readers must think I am getting lazy, just posting links and other people’s writings! I always encourage readers to send in their ideas or stories. Well, here is a piece sent in by Ms. Concerned which deals with the very important issue of Bird Flu.
Are people really concerned enough? Is it too much hype? And how do we deal with birds? On Saturday there were mixed reports in the UAE that all pet birds should be destroyed. That is certainly pretty daunting. I think this issue needs a massive media campaign to create more awareness amongst people.
Ms. Concerned writes:
Yesterday I was watching a program called "Seerah oo infata7it" on Future TV (the Lebanese channel). I usually enjoy watching this program for the important and critical issues that they discuss.
Last night’s episode was about the bird flu and how people are handling their fear in the Middle East (especially in Lebanon). They showed a short clip for two family members who own a number of pigeons and chickens. These two persons decided to get rid of the birds that they have in fear of getting infected with the disease.
I think that clip was very cruel and disturbing and that's not because of the concept of putting your birds to sleep. Rather, it is because of the way they decided to kill those innocent birds (that are not infected yet).
You know what they did? They shot the birds with their rifles and put them in plastic bags and they followed the rest and killed them.
One guy followed a pigeon in an empty pool and stepped on its feathers with his foot so it could not escape and then he took the poor bird and start hitting it hard on the edge of the pool until it died. I couldn’t watch any longer.
In Lebanon, they asked people to keep their birds indoors and try to keep them safe. Why in hell would a person kill an animal with this brutal way even if it was infected with a deadly disease?
You know what was worse? In the TV program they didn’t even mention that killing animals this way is wrong. At the same time, Arabs accuse Americans of having cruel ways of killing animals ( I am not sure if you are familiar with the McDonald's case) I hate the double standards that we live by everyday. What do you think?
