A demonstration was held outside Colonial Building in St. John’s earlier today as a group of activists raise concerns over what they say is the link between the consumption of animal products and pandemics.

Mike Peach of Eating Animals Causes Pandemics claims the reliance on animal agriculture is playing a significant role in the increase in epidemics and pandemics as people and domesticated animals come into closer contact with wild animals.

He says governments need to stop subsidizing what he calls “this broken, animal-based food system.”