Farmed Animal Watch: Objective Information for the Thinking Advocate
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MARCH 8 , 2007 -- Number 8, Volume 7

1. FDA POSED TO APPROVE CATTLE DRUG RISKY TO HUMANS

Despite warnings from its own advisory board and a dozen health groups, including the American Medical Association, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to approve an antibiotic for cattle this spring that could have dangerous consequences for people. The drug, cefquinome, is from a class of powerful antibiotics that are among the few means of treating several serious human infections. This class of antibiotics also includes one drug that is the only effective treatment for cancer patients with serious infections. The FDA was warned that using cefquinome for animals will probably cause bacteria to develop resistance to these antibiotics more quickly, as has happened in Europe. This has also been the case with other antibiotics. The resistant bacteria could subsequently infect people.

InterVet Inc. developed cefquinome for respiratory disease in cattle. The FDA’s advisors voted to deny the company’s request for approval to market it as such after learning that a dozen other effective medicines are already available to treat the disease. “The panel also learned that the disease would be a relatively minor issue but for the stressful conditions under which U.S. cattle are raised, including high-density living spaces and routine shipment on crowded trains for hundreds or thousands of miles,” reports the Washington Post. It continued: “Those ‘production dynamics’ suppress the animals' immune systems, explained feedlot consultant Kelly Lechtenberg of Oakland, Neb., and virtually guarantee that bovine respiratory disease will be a major problem.” The FDA’s approval of the drug is almost required due to a “guidance document” that sets policy for determining the risk that proposed new animal drugs pose to human health. The article explains in detail “how a few words in an obscure regulatory document can sway the government's approach to protecting public health.”

“The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act” has been introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate. Among several measures the bill seeks is to phase out the non-therapeutic use of medically important antibiotics in farmed animals unless the manufacturers can show they pose no danger to public health. It would also require manufacturers to report the amounts of antibiotics they supply for use in animals, the animals to whom the drugs are given, and the uses for which they are supplied.

University of Georgia scientists have found that chickens raised on antibiotic-free farms and even those raised under pristine laboratory conditions have high levels of bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics. Their research suggest that poultry come to the farm harboring resistant bacteria, possibly acquired as they were developing in their eggs. See: http://tinyurl.com/2jukpo


FDA RULES OVERRIDE WARNINGS ABOUT DRUG
The Washington Post, Rick Weiss, March 4, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301311.html

BILL WOULD CURB USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN LIVESTOCK
BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly, P. Scott Shearer, Feb. 23, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/37bkfx

 

2. ESBENSHADE CRUELTY CASE RESUMES

The case against the owner and the manager of Esbenshade Farms (see: http://tinyurl.com/38dgd3 ) has resumed. Johnna L. Seeton, the humane society officer who pressed charges, confirmed under cross-examination that, while it was animal-rights activist John Brothers job at Esbenshade to remove dead birds at the Pennsylvania egg facility, he could not keep pace with the 170,000 birds there. She also said some of the birds had long been dead when Brothers started the job. In “gruesome testimony,” veterinarian Nedim Buyumichi explained the slow death of hens shown impaled on cage wires in videotape evidence. The article notes: “…a healthy bird might have lived up to five days without access to food and water, struggling to free herself from a wire that impaled her. He said the dead hens likely were trampled by other hens in the cages and when the healthier hens detected blood, they likely pecked at her while she was still alive. At some point, Buyumichi said, ‘learned helplessness’ kicks in, and the hen would stop struggling and eventually die.” He further testified that decomposed birds appeared to have been dead for weeks, others had decomposed to a liquid state.

The defense attorney challenged Seeton and Buyumichi for relying on the videotape rather than having actually seen the facility. University of Pennsylvania staff veterinarian Eric N. Gingerich testified that when he inspected the facility in January 2006 (the same month that charges were filed) he didn't see any conditions like those on the tape. He did concede that some of the taped birds appeared dehydrated and starved. Gingerich said that workers should have freed them, and agreed with the prosecutor that those cases constitute neglect. The judge said she expects to decide the case in mid-April.


MOUNT JOY EGG-FARM CRUELTY CASE RESUMES
Intelligencer Journal, Susan E. Lindt, March 2, 2007
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/201254

JUDGE LIKELY TO DECIDE EGG FARM CRUELTY CASE IN MID-APRIL
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review/The Associated Press, March 5, 2007
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_496180.html

 

3. KILL IT, COOK IT, EAT IT

“Kill It, Cook It, Eat It” is a BBC Three program (U.K.) that traces a cow, a pig and a lamb, each “from its life on the farm to its fate at a small working abbatoir. At the abbatoir, a group of specially invited people, from vegetarians to meat enthusiasts, will witness the slaughter.” The Sunday Mirror elaborates: “Graphic scenes…show smoke coming out of a pig's head as it collapses after being electrocuted. Abattoir staff then hang the twitching animal up by its legs and cut its throat, sending blood gushing to the floor. Audience members including schoolkids watch behind a glass screen and some weep as the pig is thrown into boiling water and skinned. Earlier a film showed the same animal as a cute piglet. After the animal is dead, a butcher carves it up and cooks it - and guests tuck into meat they saw alive only minutes before. In other episodes a cow is sawn in half and a lamb's head is cut off, in an effort to ‘reconnect’ us with the meat we buy.” The three-part program aired in early March.

The Daily Mail ran a detailed account of a person who became acquainted with “Faw Faw, my fluffy friend, [the lamb who] was turned from mammal to meat - electrocuted, throat-slit, beheaded and skinned.” The unnamed person, who cooked and ate Faw Faw, explains: “Heavily plugged and promoted, the programme makers insist this isn't just a ratings-grabbing bloodfest, but an attempt to question modern Britain's relationship with the food we eat - to reconnect people with the animals that fill the shrink-wrapped packets of meat they buy in the supermarket.” S/he concludes: “Keep the nut cutlets on hold for the moment, but kick out the chilli sauce. No more donner kebabs for me.”


SLAUGHTER.. LIVE ON TV
Sunday Mirror, Jenna Sloan, March 4, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/32ge32

THE FRIEND I HAD FOR LUNCH
Daily Mail, March 2, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2xfnwx

 

4. MAKING THE CONNECTION

Although knowledge of food production improves with the age, a significant proportion of British children are failing to connect foods to the farm animals who are used to produce them. This was the conclusion reached by Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) following its survey of over 1,000 children, ages 8-15. Urban kids were said to be twice as likely as rural kids to be unable to identify that hamburger come from cows (8% compared to 3%), while 10% didn’t know where yogurt comes from, versus 6% of country kids. Furthermore, 2% of city kids thought that eggs come from cows, and that bacon is from cows or sheep. The survey is part of the DFB’s Grass is Greener Campaign, which is intended to not only reveal “how children perceive their food and the countryside, but also tak[e] measures to educate children in dairy farming,” a DFB representative explained.


UK KIDS 'THINK BACON IS FROM COWS OR SHEEP'
The Pig Site, March 1, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ytktst

 

5. CONCERNED BUT RELUCTANT

While British consumers are increasingly taking animal welfare into consideration in regard to their food purchases, they don’t want “the gory details,” reports grocery research company IGD. The study was sponsored by Freedom Food, a labeling program by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (see: http://tinyurl.com/9m72q ). It showed that 64% of consumers have considered animal welfare when purchasing food, though only 10% said they buy all higher welfare foods. Many consumers felt guilt about eating meat and were reluctant to explore welfare issues, according to the report.

NO GRISLY FOOD DETAILS, PLEASE..
Reuters, March 7, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2b6psg

 

6. VEGETARIAN DISGUST

"Disgust sensitivity,” the tendency for revulsion regarding meat, among three different categories of vegetarians was examined by researchers at the University of California’s (UCLA) Center of Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, in 2003. The researchers surveyed 945 adults identified as moral vegetarians (those who avoid meat based on moral/environmental beliefs), health vegetarians (those who avoid meat based on health considerations), and taste vegetarians (those who avoid meat based on taste preferences). Disgust was found to be a consequence of moral vegetarianism, rather than a cause for it. The research suggests that moral vegetarianism is not limited to those who are disgusted by meat consumption. It was also found that women are more disgust sensitive than men, disgust sensitivity declines with age, and it was most pronounced in regard to red meat. The full report, "Disgust Sensitivity and Meat Consumption: A Test of an Emotivist Account of Moral Vegetarianism,” published in the August, 2003 issue of the journal Appetite, can be accessed at: [PDF File, 155 kb]: http://tinyurl.com/2n6c3a.

DISGUST SENSITIVITY AND MORAL VEGETARIANISM
Humane Thinking (Humane Research Council), March 2007

 

7. AAA'S SIXTH "STAKEHOLDERS SUMMIT"

The Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) will host its 6th “Stakeholders Summit,” entitled “Animal Welfare: Roadmaps to Successful Solutions,’' March 19 – 21st in Arlington, Virginia. “The Summit will develop roadmaps to success on the thorny issues of animal welfare, the prudent use of antibiotics, environmental concerns and public health.” All registrations must be submitted in advance of the conference for approval. (Animal-protection advocates have been prohibited from attending past AAA Summits.) Among the event’s sponsors are: the American Veal Association, the National Pork Board, the National Pork Producers Council, and United Egg Producers. A schedule of events is on-line at (PDF FILE): http://tinyurl.com/32b6x2

STAKEHOLDERS SUMMIT TO FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS FOR CRITICAL ISSUES
The Animal Agriculture Alliance, January 11, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2p9cox






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Compiled and edited by Cat Carroll and Mary Finelli, Farmed Animal Watch is a free weekly electronic news digest of information concerning farmed animal issues gleaned from an array of academic, industry, advocacy and mainstream media sources.