You Barely Hear A Peep

There's been a lot of buzz lately about the thousands of Red-Winged Blackbirds found dead in Arkansas this past weekend. Even Universe Today is taking notice in a piece from January 6, 2011 called, Aflockalypse:

5,000 blackbirds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas; tens of thousands of dead fish in Chesapeake Bay; 50-100 dead birds found strewn in lawns in Sweden; 40,000 dead crabs washed up on England’s shores; 530 penguins, numerous other seabirds, five dolphins, and three giant sea turtles dead in Brazil; 200 American Coots dead on a Texas bridge; hundreds of snapper fish dead in New Zealand. And the list keeps growing.

Were these deaths caused by humans polluting the air, land and water? Perhaps, but each year in the U.S. alone people are directly responsible for the deaths of:

38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. Most of these animals are bred, raised and killed on enormous mechanized farms that specialize in one species and house hundreds or thousands of animals at a time. (Deep Vegetarianism, Fox 1999)

and you barely hear a peep about that!