From Farm to Family: Bird Flu Kills a Child
Her cause of death: bird flu.
The first confirmed human case in Mexico, she died after being hospitalised with respiratory complications.
No one knows exactly how she caught it. Investigators are swabbing wild birds near her home. But here’s what we do know: this virus is no longer just “bird flu.”
It’s been found in cows used for dairy. It’s been found in cats. It’s been found in sheep.
And now it’s killed a human child.
Still think animal agriculture is just about personal choice?
From Barnyards to Bedrooms
Just last month in the UK, a sheep in Yorkshire was killed after testing positive for H5N1. The infection was discovered not through symptoms, but in her milk. A sheep. With bird flu.
She was kept at a site already hit by an outbreak among captive birds. This isn’t an isolated case.
In the US, cats have been infected by drinking raw milk from cows with H5N1. Others were fed raw chicken from Wild Coast Pet Foods and later euthanised.
We’re now seeing nearly 100 infected cats in the US alone, many showing horrific symptoms: blindness, seizures, laboured breathing, death.
Farm workers are catching it. One UK worker was infected in January. A Canadian teen contracted it without ever touching an animal.
And now a toddler is dead.
Factory Farms: Disease Vectors
When you pack sick animals together in industrial sheds, you create a playground for mutation. You can slap on a “high welfare” sticker, but the virus doesn’t care.
Animal agriculture has always been a biohazard.
Now it’s a public health emergency.
And still we cling to the lie that flesh is good for us, farming is fine, that feeding cats chicken is noble while feeding them nutritionally complete plantbased food is abuse.
That’s not concern for animals. That’s indoctrination.
Let’s Be Clear
- Feeding cats infected flesh is not “natural.”
- Letting cows, sheep, and birds become disease vectors is not “necessary.”
- A child dying from bird flu is not “personal choice.”
The exploitation of animals puts everyone at risk - companion animals, farm workers, children.
It’s time to reject the systems that created this mess. And that means rethinking what we eat, what we fund, and who we choose to protect.
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