Animal-People Meat Consumption Fueling the Next Zoonotic Pandemic, Part 4 of a Multi-part Series

“You may want to think twice about buying cold cuts. The CDC says a listeria outbreak has been linked to meats sliced at deli counters. Now, this outbreak has sickened 28 people across 12 states, including New York and New Jersey. All of the people infected have been hospitalized, and two people have died.” While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated the source of the contamination, it cautioned people about consuming these processed animal-people products. “This is one of those cautions that you have to take with all seriousness because this infection can be dangerous.” In 2024, scientists in Antarctica made a worrisome discovery. “We found an unusual mortality event in Adélie penguins, which we estimate to be around at least 2,000 to 3,000 healthy adults and Adélie penguin chicks.” In late 2023, an outbreak in Argentina killed 17,000 elephant seal-people. “In Peru, at least 40% of the Peruvian pelicans there have died.”

In recent months, bird flu has mutated, jumped to dairy cow-people, and been transmitted to four humans. Experts have been deeply concerned about this development because, in humans, bird flu is extremely dangerous, with a fatality rate of over 50%. Many experts are now warning that bird flu could cause the next global pandemic. Many scientists report that the primary driver of these diseases is the raising of billions of animal-people each year for food. We live in an age when zoonotic diseases are emerging globally at an unprecedented rate. “Because there are so many livestock on Earth, we have to think seriously about the organisms that live on them that are potentially pathogenic, that are existential threats to humanity.” May all humans quickly adopt the vegan lifestyle for the safety of all beings.