Dear Editor,
I had to laugh when I read about Mr. Don Villwock, president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, telling the people who attended the Dec. 10-11 annual Indiana Farm Bureau Convention in Indianapolis, that Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) farmers are “champions of animal care.”

He said that the cages, pens and stalls used on these farms are designed by animal scientists.   All I can say is it must have been a sadist scientist to design a system that crams several egg laying hens in a drawer size cage, known as a battery cage, stacked one on top of another, where they can’t walk, perch or spread their wings, and left there for up to a year. To design a system that confines a sow in a two foot by six foot gestation crate, where she can only stand-up and lay down, for her entire gestation, birthing and nursing period of her piglets. And to design a two feet wide veal crate, where the calf can only stand up and lie down, for 18-20 weeks, until it’s ready for slaughter.

One only has to have a little empathy to realize the cruelty of this system.  For more info on how CAFOs operate, go to WWW.FACTORYFARMING.COM

Some states have passed laws to phase out battery cages, gestation crates and veal stalls because it’s the humane thing to do, and I have no idea why Mr. Villwock is against these reforms or why he asked the CAFO owners to defend this type of treatment, but it’s time for Indiana’s CAFOs to do the same.

William Wilson
Jeffersonville, Ind.