Misconceptions About H1N1

Baxter Black: You won't catch the flu from pulled pork

Baxter Black

When the Asian flu hit the country in 2003, were people warned to stay away from Chinese restaurants and Japanese cars? When the West Nile virus was diagnosed in humans, did the Health Department tell us to avoid going to Egypt? How 'bout smallpox? Were dwarf warnings posted? Does riding Tennessee walkers give you a charley horse? Do you catch the swine flu by eating barbecued spare ribs?

The answer to all those questions is "no."

So why has the demand for pork in supermarkets and restaurants plummeted? Because it is easy for a logical but simple mind to say, "I've got the blues. I better quit eating blueberries!"
Just connect the dots, they think. It's easy to explain to a child that the tooth fairy gives them teeth, the stork gives them a little sister and smoking regular instead of king size will stunt their growth.

Truly, somewhere, sometime in a land far, far away, a human may have contracted the virus from a pig. But how many people that have been subsequently diagnosed with swine flu have been within 10 miles of a pig in the last 10 days or 10 years? Read More

As crazy as it sounds, there are still people out there that have reservations about eating pork because of the H1N1 flu virus which was incorrectly named the swine flu. While the idea that the name of a virus can impact your family’s livelihood, that is exactly the case for many swine producers today. Our consumers today do not have enough experience with food production to make sound decisions about issues like this. And, no one is going to teach them if we don’t. It’s important that everyone take the everyday opportunities we have to teach about agriculture.

Baxter Black's Visit With HSUS

On the edge of common sense: Wild horse issue needs answer
By Baxter Black

I had a visit with the president of the Humane Society of the United States recently about the abandoned horse issue. My question to him was: Since the problem is a direct result of the banning of equine slaughter plants, for which his group led the charge, what is it willing to do to help those of us who have inherited the responsibility for the mess they have made?

We discussed the woefully inadequate plan to put them in "refuges." We agreed that euthanasia is not a bad thing, but dumping your unwanted horse along the roadside, in private pastures or on park land to die of starvation is not humane.

We considered having equine animal shelters, like dog pounds. Maybe one in every state that would accept horses at no charge, hold them for 30 days in hopes they could be adopted, then euthanasia. The facility should include a free pickup service, a large feedlot to hold them and a rendering plant. He did not readily agree that his group would finance this national program. But it is the richest animal rights group in the world, and what better way, I thought, to put its money where its convictions are. Read More

It would have been fun to sit in on the conversation between Baxter Black and Wayne Pacelle. As only Baxter can, he talks of his visit here and shows the unwillingness of HSUS spend their money actually helping animals and building shelters for them. However, they are more than willing to spend the money causing the problems.