http://www.jamestownsun.com/news/nation-and-world/3756574-indiana-trains-prisoners-bird-flu-fight
Indiana is training 300 prisoners to kill infected chickens and banning bird shows at county fairs. Mississippi is considering road barricades and planning biosecurity measures. Iowa is trying to figure out how to deal with a mountain of dead – and reeking – chickens.
Federal health experts are hopeful that the virulent bird flu that has devastated Midwestern poultry farms in recent months has reached its peak and will taper off as the weather warms. But worried state officials aren’t taking chances.
Fears that the virus, which has led to the deaths of nearly 45 million birds in 16 states and Canada, could come roaring back in the fall, when temperatures cool, have agriculture officials across the U.S. preparing for the worst.
Even states that haven’t been hit yet are taking no chances.
“We’re better safe than sorry,” said Dr. Robert Cobb, state veterinarian for Georgia, the nation’s leading producer of chickens raised for meat, which has not had any cases so far. “All the research I’ve been able to find is showing that this virus could likely stick around for years.”
GEARING UP
After a backyard flock in northeastern Indiana tested positive in early May – the state’s first case of the virus – Indiana’s State Board of Animal Health banned all bird shows at county fairs this summer, following similar moves in Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
The board and other state agencies also began planning what they would need in the event of a wider outbreak, including portable toilets and protective gear for personnel.
And they asked the Department of Corrections to begin training non-violent offenders to help with any culls needed.
In late May, the first group of 50 inmates were fit-tested for respirators, and began training on how to safely remove chickens from cages and transfer them to an enclosed cart used to asphyxiate the birds.
Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the state board of animal health, said crews of low-level offenders have also helped with state recovery efforts after floods and tornadoes and will be used in the event of a wider outbreak.
Exposing the Big Game 
Whether it’s exploiting the chickens, ducks, and turkeys during their miserable lives in our “care” or figuring out how to get rid of them when they get the inevitable diseases from their way they are made to live, the attention is always on us. How can we squeeze enough money out of them? Will the flu cause the price of eggs to go up? How can we destroy them efficiently and economically? How can be best get rid of the bodies (yes, bodies, not carcasses!), with the least trouble and unpleasantness to us? And the human species is so convinced of its superior position on this earth, that they do not even “see” or question what we’re doing to the other beings who are unfortunately in our power.
Ugh. You said that very well. And we can’t forget to add that ‘decent’ people don’t acknowledge the killing or even touch them. Best left to society’s dregs. Blech.
Unfortunately.