The General Authority for Veterinary Services has executed and slaughtered 11,591 pigs out of 156,000 pigs nationwide. The Ministry of Agriculture's veterinary bodies are making investigation, in coordination with Alexandria Veterinary Medicine Directorate and security services, on the reasons for the presence of skins and heads of pigs in kilo 50 district on Alexandria-Cairo Desert Road amid speculation that the pigs were smuggled to many restaurants and shops in Alexandria or the surrounding areas.
The General Authority for Veterinary Services has intensified its campaigns on restaurants and kebab shops nationwide to investigate whether they deceive people and sell pork as another kind of meat. Amin Abaza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, said it was decided to assign veterinarians to supervise the transport of pigs from the farms to slaughterhouses. In a press statement yesterday, Abaza said it was decided to intensify security ambushes between provinces to prevent the smuggling of pigs. In a related development, official sources with the Ministry of Agriculture have accused the Ministry of Environment of lack of cooperation to safely get rid of the slaughtered pigs. Abaza has approved disbursing the funds needed to provide al-Kulj and Munib slaughterhouses at Qalyubia and Giza governorates with the necessary equipment for the slaughter of pigs.
The Principal Bank for Development and Agriculture Credit has approved to finance the compensation pigs farms' owners from the LE30-million budget allocated by the state for the General Authority for Veterinary Services to slaughter pigs.
Hamid Samaha, Chairman of the General Authority for Veterinary Services, stressed that 145,962 pigs have not been slaughtered yet, adding that the process of slaughtering pigs will be quickest next week, especially after the Cabinet assigned the agencies concerned with closing the file of the random breeding of pigs to fight swine flu. Animal care associations have criticized the government's decision to slaughter and execute pigs. They stressed that they are not against slaughter, but against the so-called "random slaughter" of pigs.
The associations have called on the government to search for other alternative places having all health and veterinary requirements to protect public health and environment on the one hand, and to provide suitable life for pig in accordance with the international standards on the other hand. In another context, the Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare has criticized a society of animal welfare for exploiting religion and linking it to the policies of States to control epidemics, including swine flu.
