Category: Farm Animals

Iowa & Utah are first states to pass ag-gag laws

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

    DES MOINES,  SALT LAKE CITY –-Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Utah Governor Gary Herbert on March 2,  2012 and March 20,  2012 signed into law the first two U.S. state “ag-gag” bills,  written to suppress undercover video exposés of animal handling.
Following a template introduced into at least eight state legislatures since 2010,  the Utah law creates a criminal offense called “agricultural operation interference,”  committed if a person,  “without consent from the owner of the operation,  or the owner’s agent,  knowingly or intentionally records an image of,  or sound from,  the operation, while the person is on the property where the agricultural operation is located,  or by leaving a recording device on the property where the agricultural operation is located.” Read more

Meat consumption falls 12.2% amid health concerns

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

CHICAGO-–“Americans will consume 12.2% less meat and poultry in 2012 than they did in 2007,”  the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected in December 2011.

Analysts ranging from the commodities trading firm CMI Group and the Daily Livestock Report mostly attributed falling meat consumption to higher feed grain prices, which have made meat and poultry more expensive.  Food writers,  however,  tended to note that the number of self-declared vegetarians in the U.S. has increased from 1% in 1971 to 3.4% in 2009. Read more

Another Chicken Activist’s Perspective on Federal Legal Protection for Hens

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ISSUES

by Paul Shapiro
Senior director of farm animal protection, Humane Society of the U.S.

In 1999, United Poultry Concerns rightly lauded the passage of the European Union’s law requiring a phase-in of better treatment of egg-laying hens by 2012, including a switch from barren battery cages to enriched colony cages.

“Europe Bans Battery Hen Cages” was the UPC newsletter’s headline,  with the article continuing that caging systems will be improved by reducing stocking density,  but that cage-free would have been better.  “Historic Day for Hens,”  continued another UPC headline about the EU announcement.  The article asserted,  “It is time for the United States and Canada to climb aboard,”   adding “The vote is a victory for the birds and for our struggle on their behalf in a country that,  to date,  accords to birds and to farmed animals no federal protection at all.” Read more

Agreement Raises Flags for Egg-Laying Hens: A Chicken Activist’s Perspective on the "New Deal"

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Agreement Raises Flags for Egg-Laying Hens:  A Chicken Activist’s Perspective on the “New Deal”
by Karen Davis,  PhD,  founder & president of United Poultry Concerns
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The January/February 2012 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE included a full-page ad headlined “It’s Time to Ban Barren Battery Cages Nationwide,”  urging readers to ask Congress to support the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012.
The ad told us that “All the groups that have been leading the fight to ban battery cages-such as those listed below-actively support this legislation, because it’s the best opportunity to help the largest number of farm animals.” Read more

WSPA bewilders anti-bear farm activists

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

WSPA bewilders anti-bear  farm activists

SEOUL--“Victory!  Korea commits to end bear farming,” bannered a World Society for the Protection of Animals electronic newsletter distributed on February 18,  2012,   but dated a month earlier.

The announcement bewildered veteran anti-bear bile farming campaigners,  including Moonbears.org founder Gina Moon.
“WSPA welcomes the news shared by our partner Green Korea United,”  explained the newsletter,  “that the budget committee of the Korean National Assembly recently voted through a proposal to ‘prepare measures to end the practice of bear farming through investigation of the current status of bear farming and its management plan.’  The government has cleared a budget of 200 million Korean won ($175,000 U.S.) to ascertain the current situation of bears on farms in Korea,  and design ways to end the practice.” Read more

Thai & Chinese dogs rescued

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Thai & Chinese dogs rescued

NAKON PHANOM,  CHONQING–-Nearly 3,000 dogs were impounded from meat traffickers in Thailand and China during mid-January 2012, straining quarantine centers.  The Thai navy seized 750-800 dogs from a boat on the Mekong River on January 13,  plus 500 dogs who were found on a truck that was driving to meet the boat.  About 500 more dogs were found hidden in nearby woods,    to be sent to China via Laos.  About 2,000 dogs were believed to have already been transported.  Not known is whether some of those dogs were among about 1,100 who were intercepted a few days later by the Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association,  of Chongquing in southwest China.  The dogs were being taken to Guangdong.

Hormel, Smithfield, & McDonald’s agree to end keeping pregnant pigs immobilized in stalls

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Hormel,  Smithfield,  & McDonald’s agree to end keeping pregnant pigs immobilized in stalls

AUSTIN,  Minnesota–Hormel Foods,  producers of the pork product Spam since 1937,  on February 2,  2012 followed Smithfield Foods in pledging to phase out immobilizing pregnant sows in gestation stalls by 2017.

The Hormel and Smithfield pledges appeared to be strategic positioning in advance of a February 13,  2012 announcement by McDonald’s Corporation senior vice president Dan Gorsky that “McDonald’s wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain.  We are beginning an assessment with our U.S. suppliers to determine how to build on the work already underway to reach that goal,”  Gorsky said.  “In May,  after receiving our suppliers’ plans, we’ll share results from the assessment and our next steps.” Read more

Federal laying hen standards bill goes before Congress

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Federal laying hen standards bill goes before Congress

WASHINGTON D.C.–Awaited for seven months,  a proposed federal law governing the care of laying hens was on January 23,  2012 introduced by Oregon Member of the House of Representatives Kurt Schrader.  Assigned bill number HR 3798,  the draft legislation results from a July 2011 pact between the Humane Society of the U.S. and United Egg Producers,  the largest trade association representing U.S. egg farmers.  Under the agreement,  HSUS withdrew ballot initiative campaigns seeking laying hen standards in Washington and Oregon,  in exchange for UEP collaboration in pursuit of a weaker federal standard which would govern the entire U.S. laying hen industry.

Read more

Why an ancient armored mammal needs better defenses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Why an ancient armored mammal needs better defenses

 

HONG KONG–“We have uncovered disturbing information which strongly suggests that ‘medicinal use’ pangolin farms are already operating in China,”  said Project Pangolin founders Rhishja Cota-Larson and Sarah Pappin on January 16,  2012.

 

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“The emergence of pangolin farming,”  Cota-Larson and Pappin suggested,  “may help provide insight into why the world is losing pangolins at such an alarming rate–an estimated 40,000 killed in 2011– and why China’s appetite for pangolins continues to increase.” As with bear bile and tiger farming,  the growth of a captive population enables sellers to encourage customers to buy more pangolin products,  even as the exploited species disappears from the wild.

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The conservation aspect of the disappearance of pangolins has drawn the most attention so far,   but the suffering of individual pangolins is considerable.  Most pangolins taken from the wild are transported to markets and sold alive,  if the poachers can keep them alive.  This is also believed to be the fate of farmed pangolins.  If pangolins die in transport or markets,  their remains are frozen and sold. Read more

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