’Do you mean I have to register my bird?’

    http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20070417.C04&irec=3



'Do you mean I have to register my bird?'

     The Jakarta administration recently endorsed a bylaw to control backyard poultry farming in response to outbreaks of the deadly bird flu in the city. The Jakarta Post asked people for their thoughts on how the administration can make the ordinance work.

Melissa, 27, is a housewife. She lives in East Jakarta:

I think it's a good idea to separate birds from residential areas. It won't only protect us from bird flu, but also from other diseases.

But I doubt the administration can implement this over the long term, because usually they only come up with good ideas but fail in the implementation.

While the middle and upper class would probably accept the ordinance, it would be harder to handle for the poor. It will take an extra effort to communicate this idea to those poor people who raise chickens in their homes. The government also has to come up with a fair compensation scheme as an incentive for them.

Arik, 37, is an entrepreneur. He lives with his family in Bekasi:

Do you mean I have to register and take my bird for a health check-up if I want to keep it at home? I think this would be hard because I doubt the government has prepared a scheme for implementing the ordinance.

I understand that this (new bylaw) is for the good of all the people in the city, but the government really has to make it easy for everyone to follow it. The government has to think about the details, including the impact on the people, how to approach them, as well as providing the infrastructure for the certification process if it wants this new bylaw to be implemented properly.

"'Nobody came to check my pet birds'"

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20070419.C04&irec=3

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Barnard Matthews has outbreak that would have wiped out their entire operation within days. But that didn't happen because the taxpayers paid to cordon off their works, test, cleanup, and now compensate them for the birds that were slaughtered. Barnard Matthews even lied about their operation to coverup the role of factory farming but was caught because a reporter went through their garbage. Does that matter? Does it affect policy?

Meanwhile, residents of Jakarta endangered by BF spreading from factory farms to their nearby homes must kill their pets to protect the public.

So what would happen if instead we stop factory farming? According to the poultry industry we'd have to clear the rain forests so that all those chickens have a place to play. The choice is clear, they say: cheap meat or the end of the world.

So...why do you suppose the government of Jakarta isn't spending money to enforce the ban on pet birds and backyard poultry if they are the danger? How is it that so many Kuwaiti MPs are so sure that domesticated falcons kept in a humane facility and known to have BF are not a danger? Why is it that countries with backyard poultry and no factory farms have had zero BF? Why is it that Laos, with no backyard birds and lots of factory farming, has had BF?


Could this study by a top ngo be right?

http://ww.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/birdflu_4449.jsp

"There has never been any evidence that backyard poultry are behind any of the bird-flu outbreaks. The only peer-reviewed study to compare the risks between family farms and industrial operations, based on data from the 2004 bird-flu outbreaks in Thailand, found that "backyard flocks are at a significantly lower risk of [bird-flu] infection compared to commercial scale operations of broiler or layer chickens or quail"." March 19, 2007

and

"If migratory birds are transmitting the disease, why has bird flu not hit the Philippines or Burma, and why has it been confined to a few commercial operations in Laos, when all three countries are surrounded by bird flu-infected countries?"

http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=194
    
    
    

Farm Sanctuary Comments Oppose the “Natural” Label on Products from Factory Farmed Animals; Nationwide Zogby Poll Finds 73% Consider Use of USDA “Natural” Label to be “Inappropriate”

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/media/pr_NaturalLabel.htm

      I agree ty for laugh