Activists call animal-care rules too lax

[Guest guest]

Activists call animal-care rules too lax By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP

Business Writer

Sat Oct 13, 7:22 AM ET

 

TRENTON, N.J. - At Rutgers University's animal farm, where future

veterinarians train, male piglets are pulled squealing from their

mother to be castrated — without anesthesia — before they are 10 days

old.

 

The process takes only 10 seconds, said Michael Fennell, the farm's

director of animal care. He said it would be doubly stressful to

separate the piglets from their mothers first to anesthetize them and

then to castrate them.

 

The castration issue is central to a debate over New Jersey's first-

in-the-nation standards for humane care of farm animals. While

farming experts defend the standards, animal rights activists say the

rules actually do more to protect farmers than their livestock.

 

A coalition of activists is suing to overturn the state's three-year-

old animal treatment standards, which they argue could set a national

precedent for permitting animal cruelty rather than preventing it.

The federal government doesn't regulate activity on farms.

 

The debate will be decided by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which

will hear an appeal from animal rights groups who sued the state

Department of Agriculture over its regulations.

 

In February, a lower court upheld the standards, which permit

practices like castration without anesthesia, trimming the beaks of

chickens and claws on turkeys without pain relievers, and confining

egg-laying hens in stacks of cramped cages and veal calves and

pregnant pigs in stalls too narrow for them to turn around.

 

Animal rights activists say they fear other states will look at New

Jersey's guidelines as they adopt their own farm animal standards.

 

" They've basically put down a welcome mat for the worst kind of

farming practices in existence, " said Gene Bauer, co-founder of Farm

Sanctuary, which advocates for better conditions for animals.

 

Larry Katz, chair of Rutgers' Department of Animal Sciences, defends

the standards. He said the guidelines are minimums — not recommended

best practices — to give animal cruelty officers firm, science-based

guidelines on who should be prosecuted in animal abuse cases.

 

" This probably was the most thorough development of a guideline in

the history of this country for animal welfare, " Katz said.

 

Dr. Nancy Halpern, the state veterinarian, said many of the practices

in question are rare or never used in New Jersey and some are in

decline everywhere. She said the goal was to be comprehensive — and

to stop animal rights activists from " harassing " farmers over

practices that don't harm animals.

 

The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

which initially helped prepare the guidelines, joined in the lawsuit.

The group's vice president, Richard Yocum, said the standards protect

farmers more than animals, and some, such as allowing castration

without anesthesia, actually let farmers violate state animal cruelty

laws, which are mainly aimed at pets.

 

Farming industry experts say there are good reasons for practices

like this, including boosting productivity, holding down costs,

protecting animals from predators, ensuring each gets adequate food

and improving sanitation.

 

Wholesale changes in the nation's industrialized agriculture system

would take years and would push up food prices significantly, they

say. They note that organic foods such as eggs and milk now cost

roughly double conventionally produced ones, but say they have no

research or estimates on how much more spacious animal housing and

other changes would increase food prices.

 

Animal rights groups point out that most of the consumer's food costs

go for packaging, transportation and marketing, while the farmer

receives 25 percent of the price or less. According to a 2005 report

in the Journal of Animal Science, changes the United Kingdom required

in housing for chickens and pregnant pigs only increased production

costs about 5 percent.

 

Activist groups already have succeeded in pressuring Florida, Arizona

and Oregon to ban stalls for pregnant sows and have pushed some major

food retailers to cut back their food purchases from farms using

questionable practices.

 

" Right now you've got almost no legal protection for farm animals,

and we want to change that, " said Paul Shapiro, head of the Humane

Society's Factory Farming Campaign.

 

Katz argues activists targeted New Jersey to protest the standards

because it's an urbanized state where farming interests have less

influence.

 

" The ultimate agenda of animal rights organizations is to abolish all

use of animals for any purpose, " he said.

 

The battle pitting animal rights activists against farmers and food

processors was triggered by the shift from family farms with a

variety of livestock to what's been dubbed " factory farms. " Except

for organic and other niche farms, most U.S. farms today raise one

species almost in an assembly line, often with thousands of animals

kept indoors.

 

Activists have successfully pressured some big corporations —

including giant pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc., ice cream maker

Ben & Jerry's, Burger King Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. —

into changes such as getting at least some pork and eggs from farms

with more humane operations.

 

The veal industry, one of activists' first targets, is making major

changes, said American Veal Association Vice President Brian Oedzes.

He said about 10 percent of veal calves now are in 12- by 18-foot

group pens, and the association has told members they must phase out

veal stalls by 2017. But he said that's mainly because otherwise they

can no longer sell veal in Europe, where countries require veal

producers to either meet their higher housing and care standards or

pay large tariffs.

 

American Farm Bureau spokeswoman Kelli Ludlum said the industry is

moving toward other changes, such as reducing regular use of

antibiotics to prevent poultry from getting sick, but that giving

animals more living space would raise costs.

 

Meanwhile, a bill requiring federal programs to get meat, dairy and

eggs from producers meeting some welfare standards is pending in

Congress.

 

Colorado State University professor Temple Grandin said that eight

years ago when she started inspecting slaughterhouses to devise ways

for them to operate more humanely, cows too sick to walk were dragged

to their deaths.

 

" I was amazed at the bad stuff they did in front of me, " she said.

 

Most plants are much better now, said Grandin, who trains inspectors

for McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and other big meat buyers.

 

Jeff Armstrong, Michigan State University's dean of agriculture and

chair of the scientific advisory committee for the trade group United

Egg Producers, said recommendations it's made over the last decade

are being adopted. Average space per laying hen has increased,

farmers have stopped withholding food for weeks to induce hens to lay

more eggs and the industry is working on breeding more docile

chickens that are less likely to peck each other to death.

 

Still, Armstrong said he doesn't think such incremental improvements

will satisfy animal rights activists, and wholesale changes such as

letting livestock roam around a big barn or pen would require more

land and trained farm workers than are available.

 

" It boils down to, are we going to use animals (for food) or not? " he

said.

 

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On the Net:

 

http://www.farmsanctuary.org

 

http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture