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1.
GRATUITOUS FARMED ANIMAL ASSAULTS ON THE RISE
"They just wanted to see what shooting
cattle was like," Hickman County Sheriff Randal
Ward said about two Tennessee teens who last year
shot and killed 24 cows, many of them pregnant. In
California, police are currently investigating the
May killing of 15 goats, each shot in the face as
they huddled in a portable pen. Residents had called
in reports of the sound of "babies crying."
On August 17th, an Arkansas teen was arrested for
allegedly attempting to run down cattle. When a bull
became stuck under the Ford Ranger, the teen, accompanied
by two men, reportedly fatally stabbed him. Several
cows were wounded and a pregnant one was euthanized.
The previous week, nine cows were shot at a nearby
farm, five fatally: http://tinyurl.com/2svr3r
These are just a few examples of an
increasing number of animal cruelty cases being reported
nationwide outside city limits (see also: http://tinyurl.com/2oolkr
). Authorities say cows, goats, horses and other farmed
animals are being killed, often by angry, reckless
youths. "Rural kids grow up with guns. They shoot
squirrels and coyotes as predator control, so the
idea of shooting a rifle from a vehicle is not abnormal,"
said a lawyer for one teen convicted of shooting horses.
A former Fresno County assistant district attorney
who prosecuted teen animal killers asserts they had
too little adult supervision and too much access to
guns. "You see something, you shoot it -- and
then you drive down the road for a few more laughs,"
he said, "It's someone else's problem."
Researchers are developing a personality profile of
those who kill large animals (other than in the context
of legal hunting). Studies suggest that youths who
engage in such cruelty often commit violent criminal
behavior as adults.
The gratuitous killing of farmed animals
gets little attention in the U.S. Although 43 states
have passed felony animal cruelty laws, they rarely
apply to farmed animals “thanks in part to a
strong cattleman's lobby -- as long as ranchers follow
'accepted husbandry practices,' " notes this
Los Angeles Times article. "It speaks to a prejudice
against certain animals, not based on a rational assessment
of their ability to feel pain but on our intended
use for them," states Farm Sanctuary President
Gene Baur. Although some states do provide some legal
protection for these animals, enforcement can vary
and prosecutors often settle for convictions on “vandalism”
charges. "Most places, you've got to go a long
way to be considered cruel to livestock," said
Robert Trimble, an attorney for the Texas Humane Legislation
Network, "The industry is paranoid that somehow
what they do in their routine animal husbandry could
be called cruelty." According to investigators,
society is beginning to take a tougher stance on such
cruelty. Last autumn, Texas improved protections for
farmed animals, creating a legal definition of what
constitutes torture that includes inflicting "unjustifiable
pain or suffering."
A BEASTLY KIND OF CRUELTY
The Los Angeles Times John M. Glionna, August 17,
2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cruelty17aug17,0,564550.story
CATTLE KILLING DRAWS NATIONAL IRE
Batesville Daily Guard, Tony McGuffey, August 23,
2007
http://tinyurl.com/25swul
2.
FOIE GRAS PRODUCER NOT CHARGED DESPITE DOCUMENTATION
Crown Prosecutors in Quebec, Canada
declined charging foie gras producer Elevages Perigord
with animal cruelty despite video and other documentation
brought to court’s attention last month (see:
http://tinyurl.com/32mcwf
) by Farm Sanctuary and Global Action Network. "The
failure to prosecute represents a break down in the
enforcement system and does not speak to the legality
or the morality of practices at Elevages Perigord,"
said Gene Baur, President of Farm Sanctuary.
PROSECUTORS FAIL TO CHARGE FOIE GRAS
PRODUCER ELEVAGES PERIGORD DESPITE DOCUMENTATION OF
SICKENING ABUSES
Canada NewsWire, August 23, 2007
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2007/23/c9874.html
3.
CHINA’S MYSTERY PIG DISEASE
The pig, little more than a skeleton,
shivered in a corner, struggling for life. China’s
pigs are falling victim to a mysterious disease that
“[eats] away at their insides in a matter of
weeks.” The government says some 165,000 pigs
have contracted the virus this year. However, in a
country with one of the world's most densely populated
pig breeding areas, that loses 25 million of its 500
million pigs to disease each year, few believe the
government figure. The affliction is thought to be
an extremely lethal form of porcine reproductive and
respiratory syndrome (PRRS, a.k.a., “blue-ear
pig disease,” see #9 of http://tinyurl.com/snhb
).
Animal virus experts accuse Chinese authorities of
downplaying the gravity and spread of the quickly
mutating disease, causing fear that a global pandemic
could hit domestic pigs. China, said to be the 4th
largest exporter of live and slaughtered pigs, is
feared to already be exporting the virus. A similar
one has been detected in neighboring Vietnam and Myanmar.
The Chinese government and media are reporting that
diseased or infected pigs are being sold to underground
slaughterplants. Chinese officials insists that the
disease is under control and that a vaccine has been
developed and distributed. The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is pressing China
to share its research and tissue samples. China’s
refusal to do so is causing suspicions that the disease
may be a type that could harm China's export status.
A letter by Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society
of the U.S., published in The New York Times, blames
intensive confinement. “With this industrialization
often comes overcrowding, inadequate ventilation and
related physiological stress — factors implicated
as heightening the risk of disease outbreaks,”
he writes. Pacelle urges that diseased animals be
euthanized rather than left to suffer. He cites a
2005 survey showing “that the Chinese are similar
to Americans in their concern for animals” as
a source of hope that “we can only expect future
improvements in the welfare of farm animals”
both here and there.
VIRUS SPREADING ALARM AND PIG DISEASE
IN CHINA
The New York Times, David Barboza, August 16, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/16/business/16pigs.php
VARIABILITY SPURS WILD RIDE
National Hog Farmer's North American Preview, Steve
R. Meyer, August 23, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2oooue
CHINA’S DISEASED PIGS
The New York Times, Wayne Pacelle, August 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/opinion/lweb22pigs.html
4.
ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT GENES MIGRATE TO GROUNDWATER
Tetracycline is a drug widely used in
pig production to prevent or treat disease and to
stimulate growth. Its near-continuous use promotes
tetracycline-resistant bacteria in the animals’
digestive tracts and manure. Researchers at the University
of Illinois report that some bacterial genes present
in lagoons used to store most pig waste are transferred
between bacterial species. The research team found
that tetracycline-resistant genes migrate from lagoons
into groundwater wells. This has broad environmental
and health implications. “What we are seeing
is that the genes can travel a lot further than the
bacteria,” said principal investigator R.I.
Mackie. “If the genes are there, potentially
they can get into the right organism at the right
time and confer resistance to an antibiotic that’s
being used to treat disease,” he explains, noting:
“It’s a relay race.”
Since the late 1990’s, new lagoons must be
built with liners to prevent seepage. However, facilities
operating prior to the law are allowed to continue
using unlined lagoons, some of which leak. The roughly
238,000 animal feeding operations in the U.S. collectively
generate about 500 million tons of manure per year.
Groundwater makes up about 40% of the public water
supply, and more than 97% of rural drinking water.
TEAM TRACKS ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE FROM
SWINE FARMS TO GROUNDWATER
Science Daily, August 22, 2007
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070821153926.htm
5.
FOOD & FAITH
Protecting the environment has become
a religious issue during the past few years. Now food
production is becoming one, including the treatment
of farmed animals. Younger people in particular seem
to be interested in these matters. “Food and
the environment is the civil rights movement for people
under the age of 40,” states a Presbyterian
pastor. The concepts behind faith-based farming relate
to the principles of a number of popular diet books
that draw from the Bible. All of the authors profess
a return to what they believe are biblical healthy
eating habits and humane farmed animal treatment.
The subject is also discussed in an article called
“Farming Based on the Word of the God”
on the Bible study website: http://tinyurl.com/2qeqyh.
A Jewish perspective of ideas in the faith-based agriculture
movement can be found on blogs such as the Jew &
the Carrot: http://jcarrot.org.
“The religious movement is a huge force,”
said Arlin S. Wasserman, the founder of Changing Tastes,
a consulting firm in St. Paul that advises food companies
and philanthropic organizations on trends in food
and agriculture. “Already, religious institutions
oversee the production of $250 billion per year in
food if you bundle together halal, kosher, and institutional
buying,” he notes.
Scott Lively, founder of Dakota Beef,
believed to be the largest vertically-integrated certified
organic cattle slaughterer in the country ( http://tinyurl.com/2mkcr3
), follows “the Maker’s diet.” He
explains: “We take time to be sure the animal
has been processed humanely. This is not only important
for our humane handling standards, but it is also
very much biblical in our minds.” The slaughterplant
was designed with the help of Temple Grandin (http://www.grandin.com
), who suggested such changes as “nestling [animals]
in a comfortable head-holder as Tal Ginter, the shohet,
or kosher slaughterer, wields the knife that slices
their jugular vein, rather than first stunning the
animals, as is a common commercial practice.”
Mr. Ginter explains: “It looks bloody, but according
to the Bible and the Torah, you have to be mindful
of the animal and let it die as fast as you can, to
cause less pain.” He asserts: “It is not
a horrible thing.”
OF CHURCH AND STEAK: FARMING FOR THE
SOUL
The New York Times, Joan Nathan, August 22, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/22/travel/22eco.php
6.
THE SOFT-SELL APPROACH
“When it comes to weaning people
off meat, animal-rights activists are finding that
the soft touch yields better results than clubbing
people upside the head like seals,” states a
Tucson (Arizona) Weekly article entitled The Vegan
Crusade: Animal-Rights Activists Attempt to Get People
to Abandon Meat with Smaller Steps and Subtlety. It
notes that activists have welcomed incremental progress
by working through all levels of government while
engaging in fewer sensational tactics intended to
cause immediate change. "The broad spectrum of
advocacy is necessary, given that animals are so widely
abused for food in this country, and that we have
so much work to do until we reach a time when animals
are no longer used for food," asserts Matt Ball,
executive director of Tucson-based Vegan Outreach.
He contends: "The main point is to try to have
as much impact in the world as possible, instead of
promoting one specific diet or one specific philosophy."
Peggy Raisglid, owner of Lovin' Spoonfuls, a vegan
restaurant, comments: "I've always thought that
the soft sell--presenting people with the facts and
letting them speak for themselves--was the way to
go."
On a somewhat related note, see:
IN PRAISE OF MILD REFORMS
The Boston Globe, Opinion, Robert Mann, August 21,
2007
http://tinyurl.com/38hwh9
THE VEGAN CRUSADE
Tucson Weekly, Saxon Burns, August 16, 2007
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:99284
7.
ANIMAL WELFARE & INDUSTRY VIABILITY
"One of reasons the debate has
become so heated between industry and animal welfare
advocates is because our livestock systems and decisions
have relied too much on performance and not enough
on other indicators," states Joseph Stookey,
professor of Applied Ethology at the University of
Saskatchewan, as quoted by industry columnist Dan
Murphy in the August 17th edition of his weekly Meat
& Poultry piece. "You wouldn't find a successful
business . . . that dismisses consumer sentiments
as easily as our livestock industries have ignored
attitudes towards animal welfare," Stookey asserts,
"It’s no wonder why we have voter initiatives
to demand changes to our livestock rearing systems.
That’s the obvious outcome when concerns fall
on deaf ears." He advises: “When industry
fixes the ‘sore spots’ that trigger consumer
concerns (and ballot measures), the result is greater
support, improved sales and increased approval for
the farmers, producers and processors involved.”
“Positive changes that impact
animals’ well being should objectives unto themselves,”
Murphy notes. He explains that “…industry’s
search for systems that can deliver it all –
high standards of care, optimal animal welfare economic
efficiency – tends to obscure [that] bottom
line.” Murphy discusses two “dilemmas
plaguing producers in any discussion over how much
and how far they ought to go toward changing production
parameters,” including when pressured by outside
interest groups. He concurs with John McGlone that:
“Often, there are simply no economically viable
alternatives to unwanted production practices’”
(see: http://tinyurl.com/324hdf
). Murphy also contends: “The popular definition
of ‘welfare’ may not be relevant to livestock
production systems. That’s because consumers
define "humane handling" almost exclusively
in terms of freedom of movement and outdoor access…”
He explains: “When you depend on the purchase,
care and eventual sale of food animals to earn a living,
‘performance’ cannot be substituted for
‘welfare.’" Murphy concludes: “Animal
welfare is…a steppingstone, not to eliminating
the meat and poultry industry, but to ensuring its
ultimate viability.”
THE REAL DEAL ON VEAL
Meat & Poultry, Dan Murphy, August 17, 2007
http://www.meatprocessingmedia.com/news/newsarchive.asp
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