As of this writing, almost 2 million humans have been infected in the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic, and well over 100,000 have died as a result. Even so, although the true numbers are unknown, only a fraction of a percent of all humans have been sickened, and less than 6% of those infected have died. The majority of the 7.7 billion humans wrecking havoc on our planet and torturing and murdering hundreds of billions of non-human animals annually are continuing to go about their evil business as usual. If one believes, as we do, that humans are the real virus infecting planet earth, we can only bemoan the fact that so many humans will likely remain viable throughout the current pandemic.
The source of the current pandemic of Covid-19 is believed to be a “wet market” in Wuhan, China. In a wet market, all kinds of animals, live and dead, are for sale for consumption, many of them still alive in cages, many killed on the spot. The virus is believed to have originated in bats before moving to an intermediary animal widely consumed by humans after sale in these markets.
These markets contain fish packed into shallow tubs that splash water all over the floor. The floors and counter tops of stalls are slick and red with the blood of animals killed, skinned and gutted as customers watch. Live turtles and crustaceans climb over each other in desperate bids to escape filthy plastic boxes. Birds and mammals scream as they are killed; sick and wounded animals crammed into small cages stacked high drip blood, pus, feces, and urine onto other animals in cages below. In the eyes of all of them there is misery and terror. Water, blood, fish scales and animal guts are everywhere. Melting ice adds to the slush on the floor.
For years, scientists have warned that filthy markets crammed full of sick animals are breeding grounds for new, antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” Some studies claim that by 2050, more people will be dying from these infectious diseases than from cancer. What the world is witnessing in horror in 2020 will someday be common. The United Nations has found that 70% of new human diseases, such as HIV(chimpanzees), Mad Cow Disease, Avian Flu(birds), Ebola(bats) and Swine Flu(pigs) were directly linked to animals used for food.
Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, we continue to be stunned by the lack of serious reporting on the source of the problem. Finally, after weeks of sparse coverage, we are beginning to see the issue come to light through figures that have captured the world’s attention, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who stated that “It boggles my mind how when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface [wet markets], that we don’t just shut it down. I don’t know what else has to happen to get us to appreciate that.”
The writing has been on the wall for years. Animal agriculture, in all of its manifestations — from the disembowelment of pigs, slaughter of cows, killing of chickens on assembly lines, to the bloodthirsty “sport” of hunting — is a ticking time bomb. And its not only, or even primarily, infectious agents that are doing the killing. Heart disease and stroke, also the direct result of a flesh-based diet, kill 18 million people worldwide each and every year. We humans have a “vaccine” (a plant-based diet) for this major killer and yet knowingly fail to utilize it.
Unless humans change the way they live with animals, no amount of soap and hand sanitizer, social distancing or ventilators is going to save them as a species. Maybe that’s a good thing.
