A Higher Calling

by Chand Prasad, Ph.D. 

Wars and terrorism are just some of the karmic reactions that result from animal slaughter.  It gets even worse.  "The material world is itself a place always full of anxieties, and by encouraging animal slaughter the whole atmosphere becomes polluted more and more by war, pestilence, famine and many other unwanted calamities" [1].  Meat industries are helping to create pestilence in the form of numerous animal diseases that are infecting and killing humans.  Seventy five percent of emerging diseases in humans are of animal origin [2], and humans are at risk of being killed in large numbers by cross-species transmission of illnesses between, pigs, humans, birds, and other animals.

Human society pays a high price for animal slaughter, based on the laws of karma.  In the realm of material science, it is understood that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Actions have consequences.  This is true on a gross level as well as on a subtle level, in the short run and in the long run.  Violence begets violence.  The laws of karma dictate that when a human unnecessarily causes violence and suffering to other living beings, the aggressor must experience equivalent violence and suffering - in the short run or in the future.  

"In the Western countries such as America, many people proudly proclaim themselves to be most pious religionists and sometimes even prophets or representatives of God.  Boasting of their religiosity, such foolish people experience no fear or doubt in cruelly slaughtering innumerable animals in slaughterhouses or on hunting trips for their whimsical sense gratification. In the state of Mississippi there are sometimes pig-killing festivals, in which entire families enjoy watching a pig cruelly butchered before their eyes" [3].

Swine flu is the latest animal disease to receive widespread attention.  Swine flu is a respiratory disease that usually affects pigs but is now infecting humans.  Various flu viruses are widely present in humans, birds, and pigs, and they tend to be transmitted within and across these three species.  Different viruses from different animals are capable of recombining to form new diseases that the human immune system does not quickly recognize or fight.

The situation becomes even more dangerous when the new hybrid flu strain can be transmitted from human to human through casual contact.  Modern transportation flows mean that containment is virtually impossible, and hence the virus will spread faster than the news of the virus.  Although it is not certain, swine flu may have originated in the Veracruz area of Mexico.  From Mexico, the virus easily moved to new locations -- within two days of the Mexican government having issued a health alert, swine flu had already spread as far as New Zealand, and within one week it had been confirmed on five continents.  Given travel patterns in the world today, and given that the disease is spread through casual contact, any time such threats are recognized, they already are beyond containment. 

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the threat alert to the highest level, and declared that swine flu is now classified as a pandemic or global epidemic.  WHO is now recommending that flu vaccine makers begin producing swine flu vaccine.  A key drug manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, said they could commence large-scale production of pandemic vaccine in July, but that it would take several months before large quantities would be available. 

Why didn't WHO respond faster?  There are 2 main explanations for why WHO is only now catching up with the facts.  (1) The decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more accurate information about the spread of swine flu through Europe. Indeed, the chief of WHO was forced to call an emergency meeting with flu experts due to the concerns that countries such as Britain were not accurately reporting their cases.  The consensus from the meeting was that the true extent of swine flu was more widespread than what was being reported. (2) According to many health experts, WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier, but the agency was hampered by politics.  In May, a number of countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic — they feared it would cause social and economic turmoil. 

WHO stated that "the virus is now unstoppable", but it also described the virus as "moderate", since most cases are mild and require no treatment.  However, WHO's assessment may still be too optimistic, since about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy — people who are not usually susceptible to flu.  Although flu viruses generally disappear with warm weather, the swine flu is proving to be resilient, and that is another cause for concern.  Finally, the swine flu virus may mutate into a more lethal strain in the future, producing carnage equivalent to a major war.

Various countries are attempting to develop a coordinated response to these animal diseases, as they tend to spread from one part of the world to another. However, containment strategies are exceedingly difficult to implement in part because they depend critically on international collaboration. Detection, containment, and eradication mechanisms require cooperation from countries that possess neither the administrative structures nor the political will to enforce these measures.  In addition, there is the immense logistical challenge regarding the distribution and effective administration of medications. With modern air transportation, diseases can spread globally in a matter of days or even hours, and it will be necessary to efficiently move anti-viral medications to areas where it is needed, in an environment that maintains its effectiveness.  Detection and communication will inevitably lag behind the transmission of the disease. 

Government planning commissions and task forces fail to recognize the value of following basic regulations that include vegetarianism.  Instead, health authorities have hastened to assure the public that eating pork is safe.  The swine flu pandemic is not good for the profits of commercial livestock industries, and pork producers would prefer to give the disease a different name, such as H1N1.  This rather obvious propaganda ploy does not change the fact that the disease is a product of industrial farm animal production.

"Organized slaughterhouses are ghastly places for breeding all kinds of material afflictions to society, country and the people in general" [1].  Indeed, industrial livestock farming systems are incubation centers for disease outbreaks.  The best way of eliminating swine flu is to eradicate the "modern" meat industry.  The swine flu pandemic is simply the latest piece of evidence that nature takes revenge for the unnecessary slaughter of animals.

Selected References

1. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.37:
Purport. 

2. "Addressing Avian Influenza: The Challenges of Partnership," Dr. Bernard Vallat,
International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza, January 17-18, 2006.

3. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.14:
Purport