Bird flu and cat collars

Cat collars with bells have been sold out all over the country since an article appeared that cats could be vulnerable to bird flu by eating dead birds. All domestic poultry has been locked up, but with all the lakes, swans and wild ducks are loose. So far all the dead birds found have died from other causes. However, the disease is in nearby France and Italy. Italy is about an hour away and it is possible to go to France for coffee.

My housemate pointed out that Munchkin, our grey and white sweetie who turns killer at the flap of a wing, catches small birds, which so far seem to have escaped bird flu. “She doesn’t do swans and ducks,” my housemate pointed out. I had an image of this delicate creature (cat not my housemate)dragging a dead swan at least 40x her size home from the nearby lake by the neck with the same pride she displays her other trophies.

Meanwhile Florian’s business which includes the sale of chicken products is as the papers say in Chute Libre, free fall.

And in Britain the Minister for the environment is keeping a cool head. The Guardian reported she said, “No, they are not quarantining something called "the national flock" at the bidding of the tabloids. No, they are not hiring every agri-spiv in the land and paying them millions to cull, jab, immobilise or incarcerate birds. No, they cannot see any argument for poultry vaccination when not a single case of avian flu has occurred in the British Isles and not one chicken has died in Europe. If zoos want to vaccinate their prize parakeets they are free to do so. It is up to them.” At least she didn’t threaten to declare martial law, as Bush did, should an outbreak occur.

Bird flu has caused a few deaths and millions in lost income, but will it become the pandemic fear mongers claim. So far the threat of AIDS is far more real.