Bird Flu: It's Not What You Think

[Guest guest]

FROM: " UPC News " news

Mon May 8, 2006 10:34am(PDT)

 

Book Review

Fowl! Bird Flu: It's Not What You Think by Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny,

Insight Publishing, 2006

Softcover 295 pages

Order from the following websites: BirdFluHype.com DrTenpenny.com

Call: 440-239-1878 and 866-325-8633 (mention FOWL! when you call)

$24.95 USA $29.95 Canada

 

Review by Karen Davis, PhD, President of United Poultry Concerns

 

**

The poultry industry would like everyone to think that the avian

influenza virus that is currently infecting migratory waterfowl and

domestic chickens is the result of birds running wild in the fresh air

and open skies. The way to control the virus is to lock up every

domestic chicken, turkey and duck, and when that doesn't work,

exterminate them en masse and start over, ad infinitum. Between

government subsidies, reimbursements and protective insurance policies,

companies like Tyson and its Russian, Asian and South American allies

can exterminate thousands, even millions, of birds without losing a cent.

 

 

 

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic medical doctor with an integrative

medical practice located in Cleveland, Ohio and the author of /Fowl!/,

is one of a growing group of reputable people who argue that the big

poultry companies and the genetics and pharmaceutical conglomerates of

which they're a part " are positioned to capitalize on the opportunity

presented by bird flu " to industrialize poultry farming worldwide.

 

 

 

Dr. Tenpenny shares the view presented by GRAIN

(www.grain.org/go/birdflu <http://www.grain.org/go/birdflu>), an

international nongovernmental organization focusing on agriculture, in

its February 2006 report " Fowl play: The poultry industry's central role

in the bird flu crisis. " GRAIN maintains that wild and free roaming

birds " are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking

large parts of the world. " The geographical spread of bird flu does not

match migratory bird routes and seasons so much as it matches proximity

to industrialized poultry farms and trade routes.

 

 

 

Nor is the mass-killing of birds confined to " traditional " cultures,

whose brutal live burials and live burnings of birds are glimpsed in the

news. Chickens, turkeys and ducks on North American factory farms, like

those in China, Thailand, India and elsewhere, are routinely, and with

equal brutality, " culled " (exterminated) to control the virulent strains

of avian flu and other transmittable diseases that rage in the squalid

confines of the football-field long, sunless poultry sheds. As noted by

GRAIN, " Rare are photos of the booming transnational poultry industry.

There are no shots of its factory farms hit by the virus, and no images

of its overcrowded trucks transporting live chickens or its feed mills

converting 'poultry byproducts' [diseased dead birds and manure] into

chicken feed. "

 

 

 

*Planetary Poisons and Bird Flu*

 

 

 

Dr. Tenpenny probes even further. She argues in /Fowl!/ that toxic

residues of dioxin and thousands of other poisonous chemicals added

through nuclear radiation and nuclear waste are contributing to illness

in migratory birds, domestic fowl, and humans. In particular she cites

the Vietnam era " Agent Orange, " coupled with irresponsible environmental

policies in Southeast Asia, China and other parts of the world,

including the toxic waste dumps in which chickens are raised. Instead of

blaming wild birds for bird flu, she says:

 

 

 

More likely, the horrific living conditions of industrially raised

chickens and the exposure of wild birds to substantial environmental

toxicities - including pesticides - have suppressed the immune system of

both sets of birds. During long migrations, the birds undergo stressful

conditions that utilize energy reserves. Increased utilization of fat

stores will mobilize the chemicals that are stored in fat, creating

acute poisoning of the birds. The combination of environmental

toxicities - dioxin, radiation, and other POPs [persistent organic

pollutants], combined with H5N1 - has led to deadly inflammation in the

tissues in both types of fowl, leading to their demise. Wild birds and

domestic chickens may well be described as the /victims/ of bird flu,

not the /vectors/, and H5N1 is a /contributing factor/ to the demise of

birds loaded with toxicities rather than the /causative/ factor. What is

happening to the birds around the world should be serving as a

resounding wake-up call for the foul condition of the planet Earth (pp.

195-196).

 

 

 

*What About Vaccines?*

 

 

 

Vaccines are part of the pollution. The pharmaceutical industry, Dr.

Tenpenny and others assert, is using bird flu to rev up the vaccine

business by creating a wave of hysteria so people will rush out and buy

Tamiflu or its evil twin, products more likely to add to their body's

toxic burden than save them from the flu. In lively prose, she charts

the history of flu epidemics, pseudo-epidemics and vaccine promotions,

past and present, on the part of government and industry armed with free

publicity from the media. " Hundreds of millions of dollars, " she writes,

" have been lavished by Congress to ensure every part of the vaccine

development process is in place for the new bird flu vaccine:

Development grants, tax credits, advanced purchase commitments, and most

importantly, laws that will absolve the companies from all product

liability issues that may arise from use of an unsafe product " (pp.

67-68).

 

 

 

To learn how vaccines are made, read the chapter " Influenza Vaccines:

What's In That Needle? " Everything from formaldehyde to mercury is

involved, not to mention the " accidental " viruses that get loaded into

the shot. Flocks of chickens are kept in sterile laboratory cages to

produce the tens of millions of fertile eggs in which influenza viruses

are grown. When the embryos' lungs are sufficiently infected, the eggs -

with the live birds in them - are placed in coolers and subsequently

centrifuged. The final product contains residual egg proteins, so people

with egg allergies are advised not to get a flu shot.

 

 

 

*What Can We Do?*

 

 

 

Dr. Tenpenny writes: " After detailing this vivid description of the

manufacture of the influenza vaccine, the thought of injecting this into

your body - or the body of your baby - should be repugnant " (p. 72).

What else can a person do besides avoiding flu shots and rejecting the

hype? " Clean up your diet, " she says. Get rid of the white sugar and

flour, food additives and genetically modified products. But she shies

from the most important thing - eliminating the repugnant ingestion of

poultry and eggs, the mass consumption of which products is the root

source of bird flu, many human illnesses, and a guarantee that the mass

exterminations and other vicious treatment of wild and domestic birds

will not end ever.

 

 

 

At the same time, Dr. Tenpenny urges people to get publicly active, and

her list of things to do includes " animal rights " and " humane handling

of poultry. " Citing information from United Poultry Concerns, and

encouraging readers to support United Poultry Concerns, she makes it

clear that the life of birds on factory farms is horrible: " Unknown to

most, chickens have a carefully regulated social life and a cohesive

social structure; extreme crowding stresses the birds and increases the

possibility of illness. Beyond the crushing confinement, conditions

within most [poultry houses] are filthy, forcing birds to be reared in

complete squalor " (p. 171).

 

 

 

Dr. Tenpenny was a featured speaker at United Poultry Concerns' Forum in

Columbus, Ohio in April on " Using the Media Effectively to Promote

Farmed Animal and Vegetarian Issues. " She spoke vividly on issues raised

in her book. Having heard Dr. Tenpenny, I can vouch that she is a

terrific, very professional and informative lecturer who welcomes

speaking engagements. She's been very kind in acknowledging the

contribution of United Poultry Concerns to her understanding of chickens

and their plight. Just after the conference, she wrote to me, " Before I

came across your information for the book, I was clueless about the farm

animal issue. I never gave it much of a thought, and really didn't think

of chickens as having feelings. " I'm glad she found us.

 

 

 

And I like what she says at the end of /FOWL!/. " Speaking out, " she

says, " is not being a zealot or a fanatic. George Washington, Thomas

Jefferson, and Patrick Henry were all branded extremists and radicals by

agents of the British Crown. If your friends label you as such, you are

in pretty good company. " There you have it. Stick up for chickens, don't

eat animals, go vegan, and tell the world why.

 

------------------------

 

United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the

compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.

www.upc-online.org <http://www.upc-online.org/>

 

 

 

Don't just switch from beef to chicken. Go Vegan.