By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Last November, voters in Ohio passed Issue 2, creating a Livestock Care Standards Board that would prescribe standards for animal care.

Unsatisfied with that vote, however, a group of Ohioans hope to place a new measure on the ballot in November that would create stricter guidelines on livestock care. Ohioans for Humane Farms, backed by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Farm Sanctuary, submitted a petition (including signatures from Ohio voters in 48 of the 88 counties) to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office that spells out what would be an anti-cruelty issue for the general election ballot.

Mike Bumgarner, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation vice president, Center for Food and Animal Issues, said the filing was not surprising.

“It’s disappointing, not surprising,” Bumgarner said. “We’re disappointed because they aren’t even giving the system a chance. They need to let the board develop and get to work. It is what the people voted for and now we need a chance to develop the process and figure out how to handle situations.”

At this time the process that was voted on by Ohioans is underway and the legislature is working on the authorization process. Bumgarner added that once the program is in place it will help establish a safe food supply and reinforce consumer confidence.
But the Ohioans for Humane Farms would ask voters to require the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to adopt higher standards. Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, remain unhappy, saying the standards will be too minimal.

“Our concern is that the board will be made up of individuals who are sympathetic to agribusiness,” Baur said. “Unfortunately, the voters rushed to the ballot with Issue 2 and that surprised us. We want a uniform standard, no matter how it is established.”

Farm Sanctuary has campaigned relentlessly to prevent cruelty and to encourage legal and policy reforms that promote respect and compassion for farm animals. The proposed measure from these groups would set minimum humane standards, including phasing out veal crates and gestation crates as well as battery cages. It also would require humane euthanasia of sick “downer cows” instead of them being taken to the slaughter house.

“We think it’s a very reasonable measure, and we’re hoping the industry will come to the table,” Baur said. “We don’t need to run the initiative, but we need to come to a compromise. They cannot say things are humane when they are cruel.”

Ohioans for Humane Farms members seek to collect more than 600,000 signatures from registered Ohio voters. The group will need 10 percent of the total number that voted in the last governor’s election and the signatures will have to be from at least 44 of the 88 counties. The petitions will have to be completed and back to the secretary of state 125 days prior to the November election.

“The ballot issue that was approved by the voters of Ohio have very specific points,” said Robert Boggs, director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. “They wanted livestock care standards that improved the safety of our food supply, that encouraged local food production and that helps keep the cost of food moderate.”

HSUS has been in existence since 1954. Ohioans for Humane Farms was established in 1986.