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Mexico Kills 8 Million Chickens To Contain H7N3 Virus

Posted by Soulskill on from the suddenly-glad-we're-the-dominant-species-on-this-planet dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mexico has so far slaughtered eight million chickens and vaccinated 66 million more in an effort to contain a bird flu outbreak in the west of the country, officials said Tuesday. The country's agriculture ministry had identified the diseased chickens during the vaccination process in the Los Altos region of Jalisco state, which led to the destruction of the H7N3-carrying birds."

15 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. In unrelated news... by Niris · · Score: 5, Funny

    KFC imports 8 million chickens for their new "Clucker Bowl"

    1. Re:In unrelated news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      There you go again wishing pestilence upon those you disagree with.

      Who else? Certainly not pestilence with those that agree with you...

    2. Re:In unrelated news... by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm just waiting for Jenny McCarthy to start complaining about how the other 66 million chickens will develop autism.

    3. Re:In unrelated news... by Macrat · · Score: 2

      Oh, I doubt if anyone would have handled any of it outside of containment, likely the bodies will be cremated, if they ain't already, aside from samples.

      Of course there is no reason to fear that the Mexican govt wouldn't follow process.

      Or the workers hauling all of it away.

  2. Re:Bird Shoah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    These scapegoat crimes against chickens have to stop!

    Some human child gets the sniffles? It was the chickens! Those evil chickens did it!

    The pigs become contaminted with flu? Those dirty chickens are surley to blame!

    First they came for the chickens, and nobody spoke out.
    Then they came for the swine, and I said nothing.
    Then they blamed the geese and waterfowl..
    And then they blamed me for going on an international flight with a runny nose, and nobody was left to defend me!

    When will this madness end!? Stop blaming the poor chickens!

    Won't somebody think of the poor chickens!?

  3. A great disturbance in the force... by ravenscar · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

    1. Re:A great disturbance in the force... by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Am I the only one who heard that in the voice of Gonzo?

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    2. Re:A great disturbance in the force... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      % cat chicken-fajitas | bawk '{cluck "%s", $1}'
      moo!
      % _

      yeah, our food supply is clucked alright.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  4. Chickens slaughtered: geeks everywhere lament by MobyDisk · · Score: 3, Funny

    slaughtered eight million chickens

    This is supposed to be news for nerds, not news for geeks.

  5. News for nerds? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unless they killed them with a particle accelerator or calculated the right number of chickens to vaccinate with a Beowulf cluster of Raspberry Pis, not interested.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. What is it? by shugah · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mr. Tweedy: What is it? Mrs. Tweedy: It's a pie machine, you idiot. Chickens go in, pies come out. Mr. Tweedy: Ooh, what kind of pies? Mrs. Tweedy: Apple. Mr. Tweedy: My favourite.

    --
    If you aren't part of the solution, then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
  7. Re:ummm... Thanks? by Githaron · · Score: 2

    Slaughtered. That's it? They should have played real life Angry Birds.

  8. What do you do with eight million dead chickens? by proto · · Score: 2

    Turn them into a fuel source! No really its not a punch line. My apologies to PETA, but can you think of a better option?

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090722110903.htm

  9. Re:Chickenicide by DRJlaw · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If 8 million humans were slaughtered, we would call it a Holocaust.
    If 8 million chickens were slaughtered, we would call it......well nothing, we wouldn't even blink an eyelid at the thought.

    One is sentient, the other is pretty decidedly not sentient. One is not-food (for almost all), the other is pretty decidedly food (for almost all). One has a total population of about 7 billion, one has a population birth rate of about 50 billion per year.

    You don't complain about the bacterial holocaust that you wreak when you bathe (and I hope that you do bathe)... so where do you propose to draw the line?

    Its amazing and disturbing how totally blasé we are at killing mammals.

    They are only chickens, amiright?

    Chickens: class aves, descended from distant ancestors that ate our distant ancestors. Class also includes hawks, falcons, and other aves that are blase at killing aves and mammals. Humans: class mammalia, demonstrated to have raised and eaten chicken for the past round-about 8000 years. Class also includes canines, felines, and other mammals that are blase about killing mammals and aves.

    So long as they were slaughtered using reasonable practices, I neither feel amazed nor disturbed.

  10. Re:Chickenicide by JoeDuncan · · Score: 2

    One is sentient, the other is pretty decidedly not sentient.

    "Sentient" just means the ability to have sensations. Chickens are most definitely sentient. I believe you likely meant "self-aware".