Middle East falconry spreads Avian Flu

'Ground Zero' for today's H5N1 pandemic can be traced to a peregrine falcon that was recovered in Hong Kong, January 2004. 

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also smuggled this virulent pandemic into the United States to Maine Biological Laboratories, in order to covertly develop a vaccine while averting culpable trade sanctions that would have occurred if Saudi had obeyed international laws.

The recent outbreak of avian flu is not the first for Saudi Arabia.  U.C.R. has developed an 'action plan' that includes Pelly Amendment trade sanctions against countries and enterprises that smuggle falcons.   By supporting U.C.R., we can shut down today's black market.

Please sign the petition for trade sanctions at:

https://www.savethefalcons.org/petition.aspx

Please donate to U.C.R. at:

https://www.savethefalcons.org/joinus_form.aspx

You can read about Avian Flu and agro-terrorism at:

http://www.savethefalcons.org/content.aspx?section_id=1& content_id=29

Certainly not.  But with reference to the cyclic outbreaks of influenza, the Hong Kong peregrine significantly represents a larger volume of falcons entering black market traffic, many of which are diseased and thown away.  The Hong Kong peregrine was 'ground zero' in the sense that it represents the tip of an iceberg, for a much larger issue.

The maps of Avian Influenza outbreaks overlay the same 'rat lines' used by Middle East falcon smugglers.

Furthermore, the royal falconry camps move tens of thousands of live Pakistani quail for live falcon food, plus thousands of live Houbara Bustards which are hunted by Arabian falconers -- all without border controls or health controls.

The Hong Kong peregrine was a harbinger for things to come, as we see in the 37 falcons recently euthanized in Saudi Arabia.