DOGE Can Stop Spreading Bird Flu by Slashing USDA Spending

On February 16th, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency posted on their X handle, @DOGE_USDA, seeking insight from the public on wasteful spending to cut from the United States Department of Agriculture’s budget. Animal rights activists immediately stepped up to the plate and posted multiple comments on the post demanding that DOGE review the USDA's overspending that is harming both people and animals.

Undercover investigators have frequently exposed industrial animal agriculture facilities that contained farmed animals in unsanitary, closed quarters with animals living among their feces, trampling over the sick and dead. Recent examples include the Costco chicken supplier, the largest chicken supplier, Tyson Foods, and even former Whole Foods supplier Plainville Farms. 

The animal cruelty exposed in these facilities is only a small peak at the horrors farmed animals face across the United States. While the criminal animal cruelty is appalling by itself, the facilities' deplorable sanitary conditions raise many alarms for public health. 

Tens of thousands of birds can be crammed into one facility, and unsanitary conditions make the perfect environment for rapid disease transmission between birds and the mutation of zoonotic diseases that are transmissible to people who work hands-on with the birds. The H5N1 Avian Flu virus, which is currently decimating bird populations worldwide and has recently been identified in cattle and humans, is proof of this.

What many Americans do not realize is that the government has given billions in taxpayer dollars to keep the country's largest factory farms in business while simultaneously promoting their animal cruelty and unhygienic practices. Since the H5N1 outbreak began in 2022, the USDA has given $1.138 billion to 1,200 egg and poultry producers to compensate for the companies' economic losses from mass flock depopulations. The top four producers with the most power and money have received $301 million, accounting for approximately 26.4 percent of the total handouts to affected poultry producers. 

The most common methods funded by the government to perform mass depopulations on flocks infected with the H5N1 virus include extremely inhumane practices like ventilation shutdown and suffocation by water-based foam. To perform ventilation shutdown in a facility described by the USDA, all airways are sealed and the temperature is turned up to 104°F. The birds are left to die in these hellish conditions for a required minimum of 3 hours, sometimes taking many more hours for the flock to be completely killed. 

But according to data from the USDA, approximately 74.5 percent of bird depopulations by ventilation shutdown do not succeed in killing all of the birds requiring a second depopulation method to be enforced putting the animals through a living hell that is beyond imaginable. This is when water-based foam may be used, covering the birds in several feet of foam to suffocate them to death which can also take several hours. 

Federal compensation for flock depopulation due to the H5N1 virus also heavily incentivizes these large corporations to continue their unhygienic practices knowing they will face no economic consequences. 

With the biggest producers receiving the largest portion of the subsidies, the government has effectively taken control over the agriculture market by deciding which businesses will indefinitely dominate the market through federally funded intervention. Strong policy must be enforced to prevent government manipulation of the market. This is why we as liberty activists and American citizens are calling on the Department of Government Efficiency to slash USDA federal spending to prevent unnecessary mass animal suffering, protect the public health, and bring freedom back to the agriculture market. 

https://townhall.com/columnists/isaac-deblasio/2025/03/03/doge-can-stop-spreading-bird-flu-by-slashing-usda-spending-n2653151