Pigs // Current TV

FDA Approves Another Drug Dangerous to People For Livestock - But Hey, Fattens the Pig

Skip the meat, better just have dessert!

"As if there weren't already enough concerns about food safety, a new investigation by Martha Rosenberg reveals that the FDA has approved the use of a drug in livestock that has been banned in 160 countries and should raise some serious questions about its effect on people's health.

The culprit, Rosenberg writes, is something known as beta agonist ractopamine, which was actually first designed to treat asthma but was picked up by the industrial meat industry after it was found to cause mice to build more muscle.

And while giving livestock antibiotics and hormones is not uncommon in concentrated animal feeding operations, those drugs are tapered off before slaughter. But ractopamine is actually first begun right before an animal is going to be killed.

How prevalent is it?

Rosenberg writes that the drug is used in 45 percent of pigs in the U.S. and 30 percent of feedlot cattle. Another reason to eat meat produced by farmers who don't administer unnecessary drugs to their livestock. Or not to eat meat at all.

There's also ample reason to be concerned about how the drug affects people who eat animals treated with ractopamine. Rosenberg writes that the drug is actually marked, "Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask." Because animals are given the drug so close to the time of slaughter, questions about its effects on consumers are that much more pressing. And there's also the issue of water contaminated with manure runoff that may end up in our wells, rivers and streams.

It should also be added that it's not just humans who are at risk, the drug has been documented to have adverse effects on the animals, including a 10 percent mortality in pigs.

And who do we have to thank for such risks? Corporate lobbyists, Rosenberg details in her article. The offending company is Elanco Animal Health, which manufactures three versions of the drug: Paylean for pigs, Optaflexx for cattle and Tomax for turkeys. "Skip the meat, better just have dessert! "As if there weren't already... more

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Farmers Fight Back Against Animal Rights Groups

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Factory Farmed Meat Can Trigger a Global Pandemic That Wipes Out Sixty Percent of Those Infected

The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine flu. Billions could die in a deadly flu pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen. -- Greger very clearly delineates how a virus begins, mutates, and becomes dangerous. As with so many problems we are seeing lately -- environmental or health -- factory farmed meat seems to be a big part of the cause. -- -- Studies have shown that measures as simple as providing straw for pigs so they don't have the immune-crippling stress of living on bare concrete their whole lives can significantly cut down on swine flu transmission rates. Such a minimal act--providing straw--yet we often deny these animals even this modicum of mercy, both to their detriment and, potentially, to ours as well. --- --- The American Public Health Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the world, has called for a moratorium on factory farms. In fact the APHA journal, the American Journal of Public Health, published an editorial going beyond just calling for an end to factory farms. --- --- It questioned the prudence of raising so many animals in the first place: "It is curious...that changing the way humans treat animals--most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten -- is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure. -- Such a change, if sufficiently adopted or imposed, could still reduce the chances of the much-feared influenza epidemic. It would be even more likely to prevent unknown future diseases that, in the absence of this change, may result from farming animals intensively and from killing them for food. Yet humanity does not consider this option.... --- Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the well-being of other humans who currently or will later inhabit the planet.... -- It is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from their maltreatment of other species."

(click on the link to access the link to the full article)The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine... more

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Flu Season: Factory Farming Could Cause a Pandemic | | AlterNet

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Pig Factory Farm

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Pigs at a Factory Farm Before Slaughter

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16 yr old Boy tasered by cops 19 times

OZARK, Mo. -- A family from Branson wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65.
Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery.
“We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith.
Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before their phone call to 911.
“He looked a little agitated but, other than that, he didn't look to be falling down drunk or anything like that,” he said.
By the time officers arrived, the teen was off the 30-foot overpass, lying on the shoulder below along U.S. 65, with no good explanation as to how he got there.
“According to the doctors, all injuries are consistent with a fall,” said his aunt, Samantha.
Mace's dad believes it was just that, a fall, not a jump. The question is why.
“They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol. We don't know why unless just being in shock and the whole thing in itself caused him to forget everything,” said Hutchinson.
His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.
“I'm not an officer, but i don't see the reason for ‘Tasering’ somebody laying there with a broken back. I don't consider that a threat,”
His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.
“The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”
“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he's also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

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Even though this happened last year, I hope people start realizing the reason why our youth and my generation (i'm 33 now) hate cops!!OZARK, Mo. -- A family from Branson wants answers about what happened to their son... more

KSirys
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2 years ago
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