Category Archives: Gestation Crates

HSUS rightfully praises one governor and slams another

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Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the US praised the accomplishments of one outgoing governor and the slammed the negative record of another, in a blog post on Monday.

Pat Quinn is out as governor of Illinois. His record on animal welfare was a solid one. Pacelle noted he vetoed a bill on the way door that would have opened up trophy hunting and commercial trapping of bobcats.

Last year, Quinn signed into law a ban on the possession, sale, or distribution of shark fins. He signed the state’s puppy lemon law and an antifreeze safety law. He also fought for restrictions on tethering and promoted non-lethal methods for law-enforcement in handling animals and pushed for a ban on the trade of primates as pets.

But as pro-compassion as Quinn was, Pacelle counters with the horrible record of out-going Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman. He vetoed a bill to ban the trophy hunting of mountain lions and fought to preserve the horrible use of battery cages for hens and gestation crates for pigs.

Heinman seems to be charter member of anti-science and anti-compassion clubs.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

HSUS leader Wayne Pacelle reviews results for 2014

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In his A Humane Nation blog this week, Humane Society of the United States leader Wayne Pacelle reviewed the organization’s “Top Transformational Results of 2014.”

The list features:

South Dakota becoming the 5oth US state to adopt a felony animal-cruelty law.

It is now a federal crime to attend or bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight.

The truly idiotic and evil “King Amendment” was tossed out of the Farm Bill.

A federal appellate court rightfully overturned a horrible ruling from a lower that might have tossed out the animal crush video law. If I recall, the lower court tried to claim that torturing and brutally killing animals was protected free speech. That’s one for the Moronic Court Ruling Hall of Fame.

So arguably the current leader for the Moronic Court Ruling Hall of Fame is Citizens United.

A number of countries have agreed to end the use of gestation crates for pigs.

Three horse-slaughter plants were blocked from opening this year.

A new U.S. Department of Agriculture rule blocks the importation of puppies for sale. This means at least foreign puppy mills can’t sell here.

Internet sellers of puppy now have to follow USDA guidelines. The HSUS helped to block a legal challenge to this ruling.

Better protections are in place for animals suffering through experiments in labs.

The World Trade Organization is thankfully supporting European Union’s ban on products resulting from the horrific Canadian seal hunts.

The wolf hunts were stopped in Michigan.

New York and New Jersey became the first states to banned the sale of Ivory. This one should become a federal ban.

And Pacelle states the “…  International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program violates the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling’s ban on commercial hunting.”

Read Pacelle’s full rundown at the link above.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

NJ Gov. Christie’s veto of bill to free pigs from gestation crates is misguided

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Maybe misguided isn’t the right word for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s veto today of a popular bill that would ban gestation crates at pig farms.

Polling indicates New Jersey residents overwhelmingly support a ban on these crates and the bill passed with solid support from Republicans and Democrats in the State House and Senate. Gestation crates are cruel on an extreme level.

Yet, the Associated Press quotes Christie as saying the bill is a “solution in search of a problem.”

So I amend my headline. Christie’s veto and his stated reasoning for issuing the veto fall under the category of uneducated, wrongheaded, heartless and pure, blind politics.

I wrongly considered Christie could be an independent thinker at times and might be one to brush off political pressure, especially in cases where the citizens of his state clearly and overwhelmingly supported an issue. In this case, the governor has caved to corporate puppet masters. He put the will of the power brokers above the will of the people and the side of compassion.

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Unfounded claim of the day: Farm cruelty is rare

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I just read an editorial on the StarPhoenix website, under the headline: “Animal welfare poses economic consequences.”

The focus is on recent news out of Canada concerning cruelty on factory farms and the animal-welfare movement to improve conditions for the animals.

While the piece is somewhat balanced at times, the writer tosses out this unfounded tidbit:

But make no mistake; farmers are true stewards of the land, and displays of such cruel behaviour toward any farm animal is rare.

Just a few paragraphs above this statement, the writer noted Cargill was moving away from gestation crates. Gestation crates are cruel and not at all rare. So on this single aspect of factory farming alone, how can it be that cruelty is rare?

 

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Proposed amendment to the recent Farm Bill was set to strip protections for animals

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US Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) is an anti-animal welfare as they come. His latest effort – the so-called King Amendment to the latest Farm Bill – was set to do several things, such overturning the ban on gestation crates for pigs.

An Examiner.com article included the following:

According to the Olympian, it would effectively force states to authorize the sale and consumption of agricultural products, regardless of how unethical, environmentally destructive, or dangerous they may be.

And the article noted the amendment might have nullified “important state laws that prevent animal cruelty” and reported “King has voted in favor of killing American bison in Yellowstone National Park, killing horses for human consumption, and trophy killing of polar bears, despite their endangered status.”

But thankfully, the King Amendment went down in flames.

On Wayne Pacelle’s blog on the HSUS website, he stated the King Amendment “would have repealed dozens of state laws on animal protection.”

And Pacelle had more good news:

… the Senate Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote an amendment, offered by Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to bar the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections at horse slaughter plants in the United States. This comes just a week after the House approved an identical amendment by Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Bill Young, R-Fla., to do the same thing.

 

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

We have a nominee for the Most Wildly Untrue Statement of the Year

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I run across so many of these, so I’m sure I would loose track over time, but let’s call statements like the following, the nominees for the Most Wildly Untrue Statements of the Year.

The National Post out of Canada reports Rick Bergman, the vice chair of the Canadian Pork Council, believes “using gestation crates are simply the most humane and efficient way to breed a sow.” It’s not a direct quote, but this is what the National Post says Bergman believes.

Why? – Factory farming insiders use excuses such as the weather is bad outside or the sows don’t get along or piglets are at risk without the gestation crates.

Do they realize pigs have been around for a long, long time – surviving without gestation crates? Do they realize wild pigs breed like crazy without any help from gestation crates? Do they realize farms existed before factory farming reared its ugly head?

But more to the point, gestation crates are extremely inhumane. Saying the Earth is at the center of the solar system, with the Sun revolving around us won’t make it true. Saying the Cleveland Browns have won six Super Bowls in a row won’t make it true.

 

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic

Subway joins the list of national eatery chains pushing for animal welfare on factory farms

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A news story popped up this morning on the Pack News Wire, reporting Subway has joined the growing list of national restaurant chains calling for better treatment of animals on factory farms.

Over the next 10 years, the company hopes to completely eliminate the use of pork from sows in gestation crates. And the New Haven Register story reports the company has set a goal of using only free-range eggs. Good move, but I have to add that 10 years is too long. I understand these things move slowly in cases such as this, but pigs will still be suffering for a decade. We advanced our space program in less than decade to put a man on the Moon. Banning gestation crates can happen much, much faster; I don’t care what anybody says.

Subway has added an animal-welfare section to its website and the article suggests the list of companies pushing for more humane housing for sows includes McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Oscar Mayer, Costco, Safeway and Kroger.

 

Pack Topics: Gestation crate legislation; dog fighting; puppy mill punishment

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NJ could ban gestation crates: A bill in the New Jersey legislature could lead to ban on gestation crates and another bill could crack down on the trade of tigers.

State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak is leading the effort and is quoted by NJ Today as saying – “Animals are God’s creations as much as humans. These bills recognize that cruelty to animals and threats to their extinction need to be eliminated.”

The bill concerning the factory farming of pigs means defines the offending practice as the “cruel confinement as crating, confining or tethering a gestating sow in order to prevent the free range of motion.”

47 dogs saved from alleged dog fighting operation: In the Bronx, NY Thursday, 47 dogs were rescued from an alleged dog fighting ring. It appears training and fights were being held in the basement of an apartment building.

45 dogs rescued from Alabama home: A Madison, Ala. couple is facing 47 counts of animal cruelty after 45 dogs were found living in filthy conditions. Another 40 were found dead, as reported by WHNT.com.
Very light punishment in Canada for puppy mill operators: The people involved in the preceding two stories will most-likely receive weak sentences if convicted for the crimes they are accused of committing. It is an unfortunate result of the very weak and crime-friendly laws on the books – most notably the laws against animal cruelty.
This is the case in Canada as well, as we see in a case this week where the operators of a puppy will only received a two-year ban on operating a commercial breeding facility. But the Ottawa Sun does report that new regulations in Quebec could lead to lifetime bans in future cases.

Pack Topics: Bogus groups, puppy mill regulations and factory farming

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An editorial by Julia Breaux – the state director for Louisiana of The Humane Society of the United States – ran Friday on the Shreveport Times website. In part, the piece notes the bogus nature of the Humane Society for Shelter Pets. The only real mission of the group seems to be to slam the HSUS.

Breaux writes the HSSP “is just the proxy group from attack-man Rick Berman.” She’s right. And she notes – “The HSUS provided direct care to more than 76,000 animals in 2011 alone. Our Animal Rescue Team deploys in response to natural disasters, working with other organizations to rescue, shelter and reunite lost animals with their families, and we assist law enforcement in saving animals from dogfighting and cockfighting rings, puppy mills, animal cruelty and hoarding cases, and other human-caused crises.”

AND– The Florida Times-Union ran a story Saturday about a new Jacksonville, Fla. ordinance that gives the city’s “” animal protective agency more enforcement power over illegal pet sales. That includes the ability to levy fines against breeders, pet shops, flea markets and individuals selling animals. “” Great ordinance.

AND – The restaurant chain Cracker Barrel has joined the parade of national eateries that are at least taking some steps in regard to some of the horrendous practices on factory farms around the nation.
News Channel 5 out of Nashville, Tenn. reports the company wants to move away from pork products that originate from farms that use gestation crates and move toward those that are “crate-free.”

Topics: Factory farming (gestation crates) and greyhound racing

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McDonald’s is getting heat from pork producers after announcing that within the next decade the fast-food giant will stop purchasing products from suppliers who use gestation crates.

The Des Moines Register ran a statement from the National Pork Producers Council that included a couple of unbelievable statements –

“Individual sow housing allows us an option to give that best care.” – and – “NPPC notes that the key factor that most affects animal well-being is husbandry skills – that is, the care given to each animal.”

Gestation crates are extremely cruel, so that first statement is flatly false. As far as the second statement goes, if the NPPC really wanted the best care for each animal, it would propose a free-range system for the pigs.

The Florida Times-Union ran an editorial last week promoting the passage of legislation in the state to decouple greyhound racing from the casinos.

The piece includes this important statement: “This bill needs to be passed next legislative session mostly because the state should not be forcing unprofitable businesses to remain open.”