‘The Writing Is on the Wall’—Bird Flu Outbreak in Weld County Prompts Warning From PETA

For Immediate Release:
July 12, 2024

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Following the news that an egg factory farm just north of Denver killed 1.8 million chickens due to a bird flu outbreak and that a Colorado farmworker was recently diagnosed with the disease, PETA plans to place a sky-high warning near the site of the outbreak reminding everyone that the meat and egg industries are cruel to birds and serve as breeding grounds for deadly pathogens that are hazardous to human health.

“Eating eggs, meat, and dairy from deplorable operations where millions of animals are confined amid their own waste not only is disgusting but also will unquestionably lead to another pandemic,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The only solution is to go vegan, and PETA stands ready with free vegan starter kits to help everyone make the switch—before it’s too late.”

The deaths of the chickens in Weld County come as a bird flu outbreak continues to spread across the U.S., infecting 145 herds of cows in the dairy industry—including 30 in Colorado, the most of any state—and resulting in the killing of nearly 18 million chickens nationwide since the beginning of the year. Earlier this month, public health officials announced that a worker who was exposed to infected cows on a Colorado farm contracted the disease—the fourth reported case of human infection in the U.S. PETA points out that the majority of diseases that have caused epidemics or pandemics in recent years originated in animals before being transmitted to humans, including AIDS, avian flu, swine flu, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19.

To kill the birds, workers typically shut off all airflow to the sheds where the animals are kept, raising the temperature to a level at which they will slowly suffocate—a prolonged and horrifying process.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.