On Wednesday, the Egyptian government ordered the slaughter of the country’s entire pig population, roughly 300,000 animals. The government is justifying this action as a “precautionary measure” even though no cases of swine flu have been reported in the country and the World Health Organization has said no pigs in Egypt or anywhere outside of Mexico are actually infected with the disease. A Health Ministry spokesman said that the country’s slaughterhouses will be working round the clock to slaughter the pigs, of which he said, there could be as many as 350,000.

My stance on this, I’m sure, is already apparent. After all, this is an animal rights blog. But if this does not perfectly demonstrate a callous disregard for sentient life, I don’t know what does. The WHO has said time and again that the only source for this disease is people exposed to the disease in Mexico, NOT pigs in other countries. Despite this, the Egyptian government has chosen to needlessly murder close to 350,000 innocent pigs who pose no threat to anyone. By setting this precedent, it is all but assured that other countries around the world will follow suit.

Balls to the world and balls to alarmist government reactions.