The Pigs’ Small Revenge?

Well, the new swine flu epidemic may already have killed more than 100 people in Mexico, and you don’t have to ask us twice to point out what’s responsible for all these outbreaks of animalborne diseases, one after another. Factory farming, of course.

We think that this billboard, which we’re erecting in San Antonio, Texas, sums it up:

Cramming animals by the hundreds or thousands into gigantic, windowless sheds—in which the air is teeming with bacteria and the pigs’ or chickens’ throats are burned by the accumulated waste—is a recipe for spreading virulent diseases. Just last month, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote two articles about the spread of deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on pig farms.

No, Kristof isn’t psychic. He’s just paying attention—unlike the people at your local meat counter.

Bottom line: We can stop pigs from killing us if we simply stop killing them.

Written by Alisa Mullins