Pharmaceutical Company Profit From And Defend The Meat Industry.
For years, Jeff Simmons — the president and CEO of the large U.S. pharmaceutical company Elanco — ridiculed a seemingly unlikely target on social media: the plant-based meat industry.
As startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods rose to prominence, Simmons attacked veggie burgers and meat-free chicken as highly processed foods that “won’t do” in the effort to feed a growing population –– Even though experts widely acknowledge that plant-based meat would, in fact, better help feed a growing population, as it requires less land and water and generates far less greenhouse gas emissions than animal meat.
But take a closer look at Elanco, and Simmons’s opposition isn’t all that surprising.
The company he runs, which spun off from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly in 2019, is a world leader in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics and vaccines — for both pets and livestock.
In the U.S., nearly all meat, milk, and eggs come from factory farms, which are prone to being overcrowded, stressful, disease-ridden environments where animals are especially susceptible to infections.
Products from companies like Elanco are integral to preventing and treating those inevitable infections, serving an essential role in industrial animal agriculture.
If plant-based meat were ever to displace some of the conventional meat supply, it would mean fewer factory-farmed animals, and thus less profit for Elanco.
In a 2019 financial report, the company wrote: “Alternatives to animal-derived protein could negatively affect the market for our products.”
The company’s work can be thought of as part of the “animal-industrial complex” — a network of companies, governments, and public and private research centres that, according to sociologist Richard Twine at Edge Hill University in the UK, make up the factory farm system, promote its continued existence and expansion, and defend it from criticism.
( Kenny Torrella, 01.03.2025 ) .. vox.com
Dead Dolphins And Seals Wash Up On Santa Monica Beach.
Residents in Los Angeles continue to witness the devastating impact of the deadly wildfires, with marine life now emerging as the latest casualty of the disaster.
The fallout from the destructive blaze has reached the city’s coastline where a deadly tide of toxic fire debris has resulted in dead dolphins and seals washing up along the iconic Santa Monica Beach.
The tragic scenes have sparked outrage from locals who are now accusing city, county, and state officials of failing to protect the coast from the environmental disaster.
( Supertrooper, 28.03.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
An Alarming Amount Of Microplastics Found In The Lungs Of Birds.
While previous research has revealed the presence of microplastics in human lungs, a new study confirms that microplastics are making their way into birds’ lungs as well.
The study, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, is the first to confirm microplastic presence in birds’ lungs.
The researchers focused on analysing potential microplastics in birds, as bird health can provide insights and warnings about potential impacts on the surrounding environment.
Lung samples were collected from 56 individual birds representing 51 different species.
They found microplastics present in all 51 species.
The results showed an average of 221.20 microplastic particles per species and 416.22 microplastic particles per gram of lung tissue, revealing an alarming amount of plastics in the birds’ lungs.
In the study, the scientists detected 32 different types of plastics, with the most common types being chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) and butadiene rubber (BR), a pollutant found in vehicle tyres.
The team concluded that their findings show that birds can be a bio-indicator of the level of airborne plastic particle pollution, which could affect other wildlife and humans.
( Paige Bennett, 03.03.2025 ) .. ecowatch.com
The Long-Term Ecological Ramifications Of Oil Spills Are Immeasurable.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 remains one of the most catastrophic environmental disasters in history, releasing over 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Located just 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, the spill had devastating effects on coastal ecosystems, impacting the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
The spill contaminated vital marshlands and habitats, which serve as critical sanctuaries for numerous species.
The impact on marine life became painfully clear in the months following the spill.
By July 2010, over 7,000 marine animals were reported dead or severely affected, with many showing visible signs of oil contamination or suffering from dispersant chemicals used during cleanup efforts.
This incident starkly highlighted the gross negligence of BP and the greater oil industry, contributing to an ongoing environmental crisis that will reverberate through generations.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 claimed the lives of approximately 435,000 birds, while the Deepwater Horizon spill affected over 7,000 birds.
The true toll remains unknown, as many birds succumb to hidden effects of oil exposure.
The 2010 spill led to the deaths of an estimated 1.3 million fish, and caused significant declines in local dolphin populations, with researchers estimating that around 50% of the dolphins in the Gulf experienced health issues related to the spill.
The long-term ecological ramifications of oil spills are immeasurable.
( Supertrooper, 12.03.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
The Bible Christian Church And The Creation Of The Vegetarian Society.
In 1809 the Reverend William Cowherd established the Bible Christian Church, in Salford, as a breakaway from the Swedenborgian New Church in King Street, his congregation had to take a vow not to eat meat.
Chapels were also established in Manchester at Ancoats and Hulme.
The central idea of vegetarianism – that there is a kinship of all nature – stretches back 2500 years to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras.
But Cowherd was in the right place at the right time to make it into a popular movement.
Nineteenth-century Salford was ripe for vegetarianism for a number of reasons.
The rapid growth of the Manchester-Salford conurbation threw like-minded people together.
A reaction to the industrial revolution was leading some to a more romantic view of animals and nature.
A series of coincidental personal ties among the local clergy led to a theology emphasising the kinship of nature taking root.
And the area was receptive to religious innovation because the established church never really had a firm hold on the hearts and minds of Lancastrians.
When Cowherd died in 1816, his ideals – which linked his belief in the kinship of nature with a general liberal, egalitarian and democratic position – were pursued by his followers, led by his successor as Pastor, Joseph Brotherton, who became Salford’s first MP in 1832.
In 1847 Brotherton presided over the meeting held to create the The Vegetarian Society.
It elected James Simpson, a deacon of the Bible Christian Church, as its first president.
When Simpson died in 1859, his father-in-law, William Harvey, then mayor of Salford, took over as president until his own death in 1870.
Harveys sister, Martha, was married to Brotherton and wrote the first vegetarian cookery book.
The Church continued to provide the Vegetarian Society with its Leadership, notably in the person of Reverend James Clark who was pastor for nearly fifty years following Brotherton’s death in 1857.
Clark not only served as secretary of the Society but also helped to found the International Vegetarian Union.
This mainly involved links with the American Vegetarian Society, established in 1850.
The founding father of the American movement was also a Bible Christian.
The Reverend William Metcalfe left Salford in l8l7 with a group of pilgrims from the Bible Christian Church and set up a branch in Philadelphia.
Among his converts to vegetarianism was Sylvester Graham, whose ‘Graham bread’ is still to be found in the United States and who influenced the development of the Kellogg range of foods.
The Salford Church later moved to new premises in Cross Lane, where it continued until 1930.
Unable by then to attract enough vegetarians, it merged with the Pendleton Unitarians.
( International Vegetarian Union ) .. ivu.org
Investigation Uncovers A Large Black-Market Deer Breeding Operation.
During a traffic stop outside Houston, Texas game wardens caught two deer breeders trying to move captive whitetails illegally across the state.
The men pleaded guilty, and they were convicted of more than 50 deer breeder violations for disobeying the state’s CWD rules and transporting unidentifiable “ghost deer,” which they planned to release “into the wild” on private property.
All seven of the deer were euthanised by game wardens, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg, according to a report issued by TPWD.
The report mentions a follow-up investigation that uncovered a much larger ring of 22 suspects, who were allegedly involved in a black-market deer breeding operation spanning 11 counties.
The suspects now face around 1,200 criminal charges, including hundreds of misdemeanours and multiple state jail felonies, for “circumventing requirements, disregarding regulations and falsifying official records,” according to TPWD.
Most of those records, requirements, and regulations are related to Chronic Wasting Disease, and the risk of disease transfer from captive deer to wild populations.
( Supertrooper, 03.03.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
Bird Flu Is Spreading To Non-Avian Species, Including Pigs, Cows, And Even People.
Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is nothing new.
It was first discovered in the late 1800s, and there have been a number of high-profile outbreaks since then.
In fact, a number of high-profile outbreaks happened in 2014.
But the most recent bird flu outbreak has proven much more resilient and deadly than those in the past.
It began in 2020, and while previous outbreaks have died off after a few months to a year, this current one is now in its fifth year and showing no signs of letting up.
It’s also been spreading to non-avian species, including pigs and cows, as well as people.
Backyard chickens and small farms are also far from immune from the virus.
As of 2022, the latest year for which data is available, there were a little over 168,000 farms in the U.S. that produced poultry products, in whole or in part.
Livestock chickens are generally divided into two categories –– broilers, who are raised and slaughtered for meat, and layers, who are raised to lay eggs.
At any given point, there are around 389 million layer hens at poultry farms across the U.S., and they produce about 109 billion eggs every year.
In the U.S. alone, farmers slaughter around 9.5 billion chickens every year, including both broilers and layers.
The current strain of avian flu is believed to have originated in wild birds, not animal farms.
But there are a number of things about animal farms, and chicken farms specifically, that make them especially susceptible to spreading the disease.
To begin with, the living conditions on poultry farms are almost tailor-made to facilitate the spread of disease.
This is especially the case when the chickens are confined in close spaces, as they are on factory farms, but it’s also just an intrinsic fact about chicken husbandry itself.
Chickens are highly social creatures who interact regularly with one another, and disease spreads rapidly through flocks even when the animals have a healthy amount of space.
That said, practices common to factory farms make the situation much worse, and not solely because the chickens in them are typically crammed together in tight spaces.
The poultry industry has selectively bred chickens in order to maximise egg output, but selective breeding leads to a low level of genetic diversity within flocks.
This, in turn, might make the flocks more susceptible to diseases, according to a 2008 study.
One reason this recent outbreak has worried epidemiologists so much is its ability to spread to non-bird species.
This aspect, too, is potentially related to chicken farms.
Dairy cows are sometimes fed “poultry litter” — a euphemistic name for the mixture of chicken manure, feed, feathers and other organic garbage from poultry farms — and it’s been speculated that this practice may be responsible for spreading the virus to dairy cows, who in turn have been spreading it to people, mostly farm workers.
( Seth Millstein, 17.03.2025 ) .. sentientmedia.org
Several Species Of Raptors, Including Hawks And Owls, Illegally Shot And Killed.
Eleven birds were found shot and killed between December 2024 and February 2025, the Utah Department of Natural Resources said.
Natural Resource officers determined all of the birds were killed with a firearm, and some “appeared to have been shot out of their roosts, while others were shot inside of barns,” officials said.
“Based on witness reports, it is believed that individuals are shooting raptors from their resting locations at nighttime, and those involved have even trespassed on private property and shot within close proximity to homes during these incidents,” Natural Resources officer Jeremy Butler said.
The birds were found in and around communities in Beaver County, about a 230-mile drive southwest from Salt Lake City.
Raptors are protected by state and federal laws and it’s illegal to kill them.
( Supertrooper, 05.03.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
Despite Promising To Follow The Science, The UK Labour Government Has Allowed The Mass Slaughter Of Badgers To Continue.
The UK government has once again been caught manipulating science to justify the mass killing of badgers – this time, under the Labour Party.
Another review of the badger cull is, according to one group, little more than a device to ‘maintain the status quo’.
A secretive DEFRA review on bovine TB (bTB) control is being run by the very same people who have spent years defending badger culling, undermining any chance of an independent assessment.
In response to the scandalous revelation, Protect the Wild has launched a petition demanding the removal of conflicted panel members.
The review, launched in January 2025 under minister Daniel Zeichner, is supposed to examine the latest evidence on bTB policy.
But instead of selecting neutral experts, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has stacked the panel with long-time pro-cull academics, including Professor Charles Godfray of Oxford University—a figure who previously helped justify badger culling in 2018.
For years, the UK government has ignored independent research showing that badger culling has failed to control bTB in cattle.
Instead, DEFRA has relied on advice from the very academics and industry insiders who helped create and defend this disastrous policy in the first place.
Despite promising to follow the science, Labour has allowed badger culling to continue in so-called Low Risk Areas, bowing to pressure from the same DEFRA officials who expanded the cull under the Conservatives.
( The Canary, 18.02.2025 ) .. the canary.co
A Race To Stop Or Slow Down A Chronic Wasting Disease In Deer.
It attacks the brain. It has a 100% fatality rate.
And it has spread all across southern and central Alberta, Canada.
Fifteen years ago, chronic wasting disease was rare in the province’s deer populations, showing up in a small percentage of animals in a handful of locations, mostly along the Saskatchewan border.
In the most recent surveillance, some of those areas were seeing 50 to 85% of mule deer infected, while the disease has exploded westward and northward through the province.
Cases have shown up in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and, for the first time, were detected last year in British Columbia.
Researchers are now racing to come up with strategies to at least slow the spread of the disease in deer and reduce the chances of it spreading to more vulnerable caribou populations — or, worse, humans.
( Supertrooper, 21.02.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
Microplastics Found In 99% Of Seafood Samples.
Microplastics contamination is widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to growing evidence of the dangerous substances’ ubiquity in the nation’s food system, and a growing threat to human health.
The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 99%, or 180 out of 182, samples of seafood either bought at the store or obtained from a fishing boat in Oregon.
The highest levels were found in shrimp.
Researchers also determined the most common type of microplastic were fibres from clothing or textiles, which represented over 80% of the substance they detected.
Microplastics have been detected in water samples around the world, and food is thought to be a main exposure route.
Recent studies found them in all meat and produce products tested.
Microplastic pollution can contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals, and often is attached to highly toxic compounds – like PFAS, bisphenol and phthalates – linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption or developmental toxicity.
The substance can cross the brain and placental barriers, and those who have it in their heart tissue are twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke during the next several years.
( Tom Perkins, 03.02.2025 ) .. theguardian.com
Seals In England, UK Have Died From Bird Flu.
Experts have raised fears for the seals at England’s largest colony after four were found to have died after having been infected with bird flu.
Government scientists are investigating to find out whether the seals died after scavenging from the corpses of infected birds.
Four seals on the north Norfolk coast were found dead on the shoreline and tested positive for bird flu.
Two of these were at Blakeney Point, home to the largest seal colony in England with about 4,000 pups born each year.
The UK’s grey seal population is globally significant as it is home to 38% of the world’s population.
Seals already face various pressures, from plastic pollution to a reduction in foraging and habitat areas caused by climate breakdown.
Bird flu can kill seals by causing pneumonia and encephalitis.
The highly infectious variant of H5N1 is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds since 2021, and has spread to mammals and caused mass die-offs in sea lions and elephant seal pups.
( Supertrooper, 25.02.2025 ) .. focusingonwildlife.com
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