Animal activists are rushing in to add to headline-grabbing Sydney protest activities stirring up public debate this week.
Police bans are already in place against two other unrelated protests in central Sydney because they would breach coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans to have vegan protesters descending on Pitt Street Mall wearing protective hazmat suits on Saturday.
PETA claims giving up eating meat will help stop future pandemics, and its weekend protest is pitched at urging passers-by to go vegan.
The only way to prevent future pandemics is to avoid meat like the plague
- Emily Rice, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Placards reading "Meat kills" and "Prevent pandemics: Go vegan," have already been prepared in defiance of police concerns about the public health danger posed by recent public protest gatherings and their disrespect for social distancing guidelines.
Police are challenging a protest application by Refugee Action Coalition Sydney to march about 1000 people in the city centre, while another event is scheduled to protest about black deaths in custody in front of Sydney Town Hall on Friday night.
The same coalition of activist groups organised last weekend's Black Lives Matter protest which attracted about 20,000 protesters, despite organisers initially seeking permission for a 50-person vigil.
Almost 3000 have indicated their interest in returning to attend Friday's rally.
PETA protest organiser Emily Rice said deadly outbreaks of swine flu, avian flu, SARS, HIV, foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, and other zoonotic diseases all stemmed from capturing or farming animals for food.
"Zoonotic diseases aren't limited to wet markets," she said
"Wherever stressed, injured, and sick animals are crammed together in filthy conditions like they are on factory farms, at abattoirs, and on live-export ships, deadly pathogens can emerge and viruses can spread.
"The only way to prevent future pandemics is to avoid meat like the plague."
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The activist group, which has run frequent attacks against the wool and dairy industries planned to use recent video footage of local factory farms and abattoirs to press home its vegan agenda and inform the public about links between the intensive animal management and zoonotic diseases.
She claimed Australia's "factory farms" were perfect breeding grounds for diseases, with intelligent, sensitive animals are tightly "warehoused there together before being sent to abattoirs, where they're killed on floors soaked with blood, urine, and other bodily fluids".
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