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Humane Society warns Ohio farmers to give animals space

By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The confinement of farm animals has been a hot issue in many states. Now that steamy topic is about to reach the boiling point in Ohio.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) met with Ohio Farm Bureau Federation leaders, the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association, the Ohio Pork Producers Council and the Ohio Poultry Association in February, telling them to change their animal husbandry practices or have the practices changed for them via the ballot box.

“When we met with those leaders we suggested we come to a meeting of the minds with a plan to phase out confinement systems in the state,” HSUS president Wayne Pacelle said. “My suggestion to agricultural leaders in Ohio was not to squander money on a campaign that was likely to fail.”

Pacelle is quite successful in his efforts. Since 1990, Pacelle and the HSUS has directed more than 15 successful statewide ballot measure campaigns, from banning use of bait and dogs in hunting wild animals in Colorado, to banning use of traps in California, to the outlawing of cockfighting in Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma.
The HSUS has three main initiatives involving farm animals. It wants to ban gestation crates that allow little movement for sows giving birth, small cages for laying hens and stalls that prevent veal calves from moving around.

The farm bureau has served notice that it is not going to roll over.
“They make what sounds like simple demands regarding animals when in reality their true goal is to give animals status equal to humans,” said Jack Fisher, the bureau’s executive vice president. Those at the federation wonder is the HSUS is making an honest attempt to improve animal care or is it trying to disrupt livestock farms, artificually drive up the cost of animal products and restrict consumer choice.

Pacelle says the public sentiment is on the side of the Humane Society, noting that Maine’s governor recently signed legislation banning crates and cages that cramp breeding pigs and veal calves beginning in January 2011. And most recently HSUS got easy wins and ballot initiatives in Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Florida and California. Voters in California gave HSUS a 70 percent approval rating in a recent animal welfare issue.

“We’ve done our own polling in Ohio and found it very similar to California,” Pacelle said. “If we are going to solve the problems that animals face in America and throughout the world, we have to have civil and honest discussions with people involved in industries using animals. We need laws and we need socially responsible corporate standards and policies. We need open communications.
“Agriculture is a noble enterprise, and there’s always going to be a fixed comsumer base for agricultural goods. But how we conduct agriculture is a topic that we must debate, since our values and our understanding of science are not static. I know that farmers are innovative and creative enough to leave intensive confinement systems behind.”

According to Keith Stimpert, the federation’s senior vice president of public policy, the Farm Bureau was starting a new Center for Food and Animal Issues that would focus on the “whole gamut of animals’ role in society.” The center will raise money and be the federation’s voice in the public debate on farm animal welfare issues.

6/3/2009