React to Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Go Vegetarian Today

PETA has been inundated with requests for our free emergency vegetarian starter kits since foot-and-mouth disease was found in animals in the UK again.

The problem needs to be addressed at its root. Mad cow disease, SARS, avian flu and now foot-and-mouth disease are all predictable consequences of the sickening and cruel meat industry.

Animals in factory farms are raised in severely crowded, unnatural conditions, where disease spreads like wildfire. Almost all pigs raised for meat in Britain are factory-farmed. They are kept indoors in crowded, filthy conditions that cause extreme stress and discomfort. Every time they give birth, most breeding pigs spend at least a month in a metal farrowing crate which is so small that they can hardly move. Most pigs don't even have any bedding. They spend their lives on dirty, wet concrete. Diseases are common, as is the use of drugs and antibiotics.

Cows on dairy farms have their babies stolen from them, are made to stand in stalls for much of their lives and are kept constantly pregnant. This often leads to excruciating udder infections, lameness and infertility. Cows in the dairy industry are typically killed when they are less than 5 years old.

One factory-farm chicken or turkey shed can house tens of thousands of birds, who are constantly kept cooped up in their own filth, allowing diseases to spread quickly amongst them. Laying hens are typically kept in stacked cages, causing excrement from the birds on top to fall on the birds below.

It's no wonder the British public is going vegetarian upon realising that as long as animals are intensively raised for meat, there will be diseases – whether it's BSE, bird flu, SARS, foot-and-mouth disease or others. With diseases running rampant in crowded, filthy factory farms – and the known link between meat-eating and heart disease – the best thing to do is to avoid meat like the plague.

For delicious vegetarian recipes, visit VegCooking.com. If you haven't already done so, order your free vegetarian starter kit now!