Cairo – Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said.
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The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the government order.
“It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country’s slaughterhouses,” Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population.
Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.
Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.
In 2008, following fears over diseases spread by animals, Mubarak ordered all pig and chicken farms moved out of population areas. But the order was never implemented.
Pigs can be found in many places around Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.
In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country’s five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations.
Israel should do the same! We could use this excuse to remove the pigs from the kibbutzim in Israel. It might help remove the pork from the stores. It is a disgusting Chillul Hashem that we even have pork in stores in Israel! On second thought maybe we could just transport the pigs to America rather then kill the pigs…
Can you imagine the intense revulsion if in Egypt they ordered the slaughter of Asian in an Asian flu pandemic!!!
So now Egypt is going to join the fanatical Arab countries in banning pigs in their countries. Mubarak knows that one step in that direction spells disaster for himself and his designated heir. We’ll see how this plays out. In western countries it would be called “monkey in the middle”; there we might call it “pig in the middle”.
How many pigs are in Israel? Perhaps pigs should be banned in Israel if they aren’t already banned. Israel’s population is around 75% Jewish and around 20% Moslem.
Tipshim!!
hold on a second…… if they are slaughtering pigs to prevent the outbreak of swine flu, they should also slaughter the other carriers and spreaders of swine flu….PEOPLE !
Yes, thats right, if they slaughter people with swine flu that can help stop the spread.
poor little piggies
let’s order the execution of anyone with swine flu, that will surely stop its spread
Well in Israel it’s called mexican flu so maybe they’ll just kick out all the Mexican workers…
Where are those PETA anti-semites now!
they didn’t even say that the cause of this flu started from pigs, so what does slaughtering all those pigs help in preventing this flu? It is mass hysteria caused by the government, that’s what.
I have a question why are there pigs in Israel and Egypt?? Aren’t pigs unkosher in Israel and Egypt??? So why are these countries having pigs in them ????
350,000 pigs in Egypt for the 10 % minority ? That seems like a lot of pork !!
Egyptians are STUPID people…Pyramids and Paper…that’s all they gave us…oh and slavery…
“It’s just a way for them to discriminate against the Christian minority, and is just pandering to extremist Muslims. “
Why must Christians in Egypt or in Israel have easy access to pork? While I don’t want any religious group to be discriminated against, I also don’t see an absolute necessity for these people to eat pork.