Health

Zoo Kill Boars Amid 'Swine Flu' Fear

by Mary Richard | May 3, 2009 at 10:15 am

372 views | 58 Recommendations | 4 comments

I'm starting to get immune to all the news on the H1N1 virus. It's here, right in my city, and I just have to deal with it, without allowing other people's panic take control of my life.

This story caught me off guard though, of animals in a zoo, that tested negative for the virus, but were still put down.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three wild boars were put to sleep in Iraq on Friday because of swine flu fears, a zoo official said. The decision to kill the 10-year-old wild boars in Baghdad was a precautionary measure by the government to prevent an outbreak of swine flu, said Adel Musa, the zoo director.

It was done "to break a barrier of fear" zoo visitors had developed in recent days because of the spread of swine flu worldwide, he said.

Is this our new reality?

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Samir Joshi

at 12:06 on May 3rd, 2009

This is just not done! Poor animal lost its life just for a "barrier of fear"... Ridiculous

Mrsmission4

at 12:49 on May 3rd, 2009

Unbelievable ignorance.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 14:52 on May 3rd, 2009

These are uneducated people making those decisions. It not only saddens me, it makes me angry. Sometimes the appearance that humans are the only thing that count on this planet. Yet we have managed to screw it up pretty well.