By ELIZABETH HEITKAMP
Farm World Intern

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) is a national nonprofit organization that directs its efforts toward “educating the public and the media on how farmers care for their animals,” said Sarah Hubbart, AAA communications coordinator.

She believes “it’s not enough to just produce food,” but that it is necessary to teach farmers how to use the Internet in order to “counteract animal rights groups.”

This is why AAA wants college students to take time to research agricultural news and participate in the College Aggies Online competition that encourages students to become familiar with online networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“It ignites an interest in students,” Hubbart said. “It’s something unique and relevant with the fight against activists, because (activists) know it’s important.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Agriculture (PETA) and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), both animal activist organizations, agree utilizing online media is crucial.

“We have more than 60,000 Twitter fans,” said Lindsay Rajt, manager of PETA’s campaign department. “It keeps people in the loop.”

Paul Shapiro, senior director of HSUS’ factory farming campaign, said, “The Humane Society of the United States has a robust social networking program, using multiple Facebook groups and causes, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and many more sites.”

AAA believes animal activists group are misinforming the public and that people need to “get the facts.” Shapiro said the HSUS doesn’t fit that description.

“What’s an example of a false statement we’ve made?” he asked. “HSUS bases our arguments on solid research and facts.

“We regularly publish peer-reviewed articles on animal welfare and food safety, and we work with many veterinarians through our Humane Society Veterinary Medical Assoc. program.”

Both PETA and HSUS utilize online networks, and Rajt believes the public needs to see evidence for themselves. “They don’t need to take our word on it,” Rajt said. “They can watch footage to see animal cruelty.”

Video example
Although videos are available, their content is still questioned.

Shapiro said, “It’s unfortunate that many in animal agribusiness seem to routinely engage in scaremongering, often mischaracterizing our work to the point of appearing hysterical.”

Earlier this year, animal activist group Mercy for Animals (MFA) broadcast a video on alleged animal abuse taking place on Gary Conklin’s Ohio farm. MFA declined to participate in an interview, but according to an August Ohio Farm Bureau (OFB) article titled Conklin Cleared On Animal Abuse, edited videos published by MFA on YouTube have promoted untrue images on proposed animal cruelty.

The article said, “In a video released by the animal rights organization Mercy for Animals, an image of Conklin kicking a cow was spliced between scenes of a farm employee willfully abusing animals.”

Although MFA views Conklin’s kicking as abuse, four experienced large animal veterinarians disagreed after viewing the unedited footage. They stated the heifer had just calved and had Conklin not tried to get the animal to stand, it could have suffered from atrophy, leading to death.

According to the OFB, followers of the YouTube video have continued to harass the Conklins with death threats because of the animal cruelty, yet Conklin didn’t perform any of the alleged abuse. Even though MFA was aware that Conklin’s employee Billy Joe Gregg was abusing the cows, according to the OFB, both MFA and its undercover Conklin employee didn’t report it to authorities or the owners until a public video was displayed. Gregg was arrested and charged with several misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty.

Even with the recent jury decision to not charge Conklin, Shapiro believes “students should research for themselves what happens to farm animals and make informed choices about how they use that information.”

“The reality is, most animals are being raised in animal factories. They are bred and drugged to be so huge that they can’t reproduce naturally,” Rajt said. “We would love to give tours of slaughter houses, but unfortunately, they are unwilling.”

Opposing views
Ryan Huling is the senior college campaign coordinator for PETA2, the youth division for the group. Huling claims to work with more than 300 student groups, and it is regular practice to invite university animal science departments to participate in university campaigns in order for students to hear both sides of the argument.

“Animal sciences’ departments refuse to debate at universities,” Huling said. “It’s too bad animal science departments are so ashamed of their industry’s practices that they can’t defend it publically.”

The University of Tennessee, Iowa State University Animal Sciences Chair and professor Dr. Maynard Hogberg and Michigan State University Animal Sciences Interim Chair and Director of Animal Welfare Dr. Janice Swanson disagreed with the statement.

“Officials with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) say land grant universities provide vital services to agricultural industries and to consumers. They maintain that safe, affordable, nutritious, high-quality food products come from healthy, well-treated animals,” said a UTIA representative.

“University scientists participate in rigorous, scholarly efforts to promote and improve animal welfare. Universities are among the chief advocates of animal husbandry methods and communicate an ethic of care and commitment to animal welfare, to ensure optimal health for the benefit of animals and consumers.”

“Their agenda is so different from ours. There is no reason to debate it,” said Hogberg. “Frankly, we are not going to lower ourselves to their level. Our focus is how do we make systems of animal production better through the use of science and technology rather than try to destroy it?”

“In a university environment it is our obligation to promote thought-provoking intelligent discussion and not sensational and polarizing debate forums typical to this particular ideological disagreement, “Swanson said.

“PETA has, in their own words, described their presence on campus as a campaign. Sustainable solutions for food production will flow from our laboratories, classrooms and field stations and there is precious little time for nonproductive campaign driven debate.”

More information on the AAA is at www.animalagalliance.org/current/index.cfm and on PETA at www.peta.org

HSUS is at www.humanesociety.org and the OFB article cited above may be found at http://ofbf.org/news-and-events/news/806