WASHINGTON - October 28 - The Capitol Police have stated that they would reject PETA's application to set up a factory-farm exhibit on the steps of the U.S. Capitol--complete with live pigs, urine, and manure--by citing the "significant public health concerns about the possible spread of the H1N1 virus" associated with such conditions. PETA had hoped to set up the typical factory farm as a way to illustrate that very point. It had also hoped to encourage lawmakers and visitors to try a vegan diet by showing them the cruelty and unsanitary conditions of factory farms.

"Apparently, it's not safe to allow congressmembers and lobbyists to breathe the noxious fumes emitted by factory farms, but for the millions of rural Americans whose water and air are poisoned by waste and pathogens from the meat industry, tough luck," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "President Obama just declared swine flu a national emergency, but the best way to avoid future flu outbreaks is to stop the demand for pork and chicken, because those farms are where these illnesses originate."

Animals on factory farms are crammed by the tens of thousands into cramped, barren concrete crates inside filthy sheds and are slaughtered on killing floors that are contaminated with feces, vomit, and other bodily fluids. These conditions result in startlingly high rates of contamination with E. coli, campylobacter, salmonella, listeria, and other organisms that originate in the intestinal tracts and feces of animals. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 to 50 percent of commercial pigs in the U.S. have been infected with some strain of swine flu.

For more information, please visit PETA's blog.