Antibiotics are made to help us heal, but overuse speeds up the creation of resistant bacteria - considered a top public health threat to the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The inappropriate use of human antibiotics on factory farms is one of the main causes of the 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths caused by drug-resistant bacteria each year in the United States, according to the CDC.
The consequences are grave. The most basic medical operations - getting an appendix removed or a hip replaced - could become deadly.
Antibiotics should only be used to treat sick animals and control disease outbreaks. The routine, non-therapeutic use in food-producing animals must be limited to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotic drugs in humans.
Add your name if you agree that we must end the routine use of antibiotics on farm animals that are not sick--before it is too late.
