By Zhang Lingge

On October 26, dead chickens were found on family farms in a village of Heishan County in northeastern Liaoning Province.

Samples from the dead chickens were sent to the National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory on November 1 and the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was confirmed on November 3.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced the confirmation on November 4.

Recently, despite efforts all countries have made to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, the bird flu has become rampant. The one-after-another epidemic situation has caught people unprepared. Even though we trust in human science, technology and ability, we still ask: how has this situation happened?

The 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak hasn't yet faded from memory, and now the bird flu has come. What will be next?

Variola, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, rubeola, cholera – more than a hundred kinds of diseases in all – have been transmitted to humans via animals. Who is at fault, animals or humans? What is the rightful position of humans on this planet? Many questions need to be answered.

In the relationship between humans and animals and other creatures, humans seem to occupy the absolutely priority – the hosts of the planet. In this asymmetrical relationship, animals and other creatures didn't choose to be silent. And piling-up, suicide and extinction are not the only ways they express themselves. The corona virus of SARS may have come from the "masked palm civet" and AIDS originated from the African gorilla, which infected the African people and has now spread throughout the whole world.

According to scientific research, disease usually breaks out concurrently with periods of great change in the ecological system. These may triggered by natural acts, like flood, fire or earthquake, or by man-made disasters, such as turning the forest into farmland or building dams in rivers to change water resource distribution. The warming of the climate also causes wild animals to be more diseases prone.

These changes can result in the over-proliferation of certain species with high reproductive rates, like rodents and the vermin, fostering the spread of diseases among other wild animals. The environmental changes also force some species to shift their habitat, spreading disease even further.

Although there isn't strong scientific evidence linking bird flu with the damage to the ecological environment or global warming, directly or indirectly associated disasters have happened in recent years. Hurricanes, plague, tsunami, and earthquakes have happened one after another, with increasing force and frequency. When humans are satisfied with their blooming scientific achievements, these disasters challenge their self-satisfaction and pride.

Human beings cannot conquer nature and they cannot disregard it and the creatures living in it. As beings living on the same planet, animal and plants have their own rights and their own dignity. To occupy resources and habitats, they seem to be in a weaker position than humans. However they have their own ways of repaying humans.

The decision-making principal holds that decisions are made for the benefit of every side. But the penguin cannot vote, polar bears cannot, even grasslands and the glaciers cannot. Humans are the decision-makers in the democracy. To deal with SARS, humans killed the masked palm civets; to prevent and cure the bird flu, humans killed a great deal of poultry. If all animals threaten human lives, will they be killed to extinction? This may be a never-solved ethical issue.

Human beings should keep a certain distance from animals and respect animals and other creatures' rights. Besides being to their ultimate benefit, as the most advantaged being on the earth, human should have the mind and the magnanimity to respect other beings. In the past, humans called insects and birds beneficial to human activities "beneficial insects" or "beneficial birds," and described beings that do harm to humans as cartoon monsters, which shows the parochialism in their morality and lack of knowledge.

The bird flu can result in human infection, which frightens people. Besides killing the poultry, humans also inject bacteria into them. This again proves that in this world humans cannot live only by themselves and it is difficult to set one focus of value or benefit. Animals' disaster is also humans', respecting animals is respecting humans themselves and the salvation of nature is human salvation.

The author is from the Environmental Defense China Program office.

(China.org.cn translated by Zhou Jing, November 15, 2005)