if you want to be buried the old-fashioned way, by being eaten by vultures, die soon. vultures are dying out: in asia, there has been a staggering 97% drop in numbers, tens of million of deaths, over the last decade.
here's a picture of a dakhma (tower of silence) outside yazd, iran - which is no longer in use.
vultures could eat a corpse in under five minutes, leaving clean, hygienic bones. now, bodies of animals and humans are piling up in appalling numbers, causing massive explosions of disease, filthy pest species like rats and small birds carrying those diseases, and appalling stench.
the reason appears to be caused by a cheap pain reliever for cattle - a kind of livestock tylenol. here is what national geographic says,
Based on an intense, three-year study of three rapidly declining Oriental white-backed vulture colonies in Pakistan, Oaks and his colleagues conclude that the vultures die after scavenging carcasses of livestock with diclofenac residues.
you can hear all about the vulture crisis and how the international scientific community is reacting to conserve them on the BBC.
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