Animal agriculture is under attack across the country. Under the guise of regulating responsible animal ownership, groups have deviated from companion animals and begun to target farms and ranches. While livestock welfare was always an issue, in the last five years organizations have increased their focus on animal husbandry practices. They have begun to use infiltration and ambush tactics to gather evidence for public support. In turn, they have used these undercover findings to push for legislation to eliminate common livestock practices in multiple states.
By showing video that is graphic, and through the use of creative editing, they have cultivated a misinformed public opinion. A public opinion that believes the exception rather than the rule. There are, no doubt, some large facilities where quantity of animals overrules the quality of the animals. However ugly they may be, those are not the true representatives of the heart of animal agriculture.
When a person on the street is asked what a farmer or rancher looks like, they don't say a man in a business suit. It isn't the CEO of the company owned farms raising thousands of animals and often employing people with no agricultural experience. The public describes the stereotypical patriarch of the small family operation with his dusty boots and hands roughened from hard work. That is the face they associate with the videos they are seeing of animals in distress. It has become a distorted view of livestock production.
What the public does not see are:
- The farmers and ranchers fighting to keep their stock alive in adverse weather
- The losses these producers suffer to predators, disease and accidents
- The hours spent on tractors cutting and baling hay
- The miles of fences to be built and repaired
- The debts incurred to improve housing and handling equipment
- The late nights during calving, lambing, kidding and farrowing season
- The cooler full of medicines because large animal veterinarians no longer make farm calls
Videos of injured and sick animals is what they see daily. The animal rights groups are trying to pressure producers into more natural living conditions. They would like cage free eggs and free range poultry. Cattle, sheep and goats allowed to graze and hogs in large pens or pastures where they can breed and farrow in a community setting. This isn't an uncommon practice for some small farms and ranches, and is no doubt ideal to reduce stress on the animals, except it isn't economically feasible in most cases. It would also pass a tremendous amount of cost down to the customers making going to the grocery unpleasant, to say the least.
Livestock gets hurt and falls ill everyday under these type of ideal living conditions. They run, jump and act like animals are supposed to. They get respiratory infections, pneumonia and colds like all animals can when the conditions are present. Cattle can roam thousands of acres to graze, then break a leg in a hole on the way back to water. Pigs in large communal pens, or in pasture, will fight with each other even when there is plenty of space to live. All this goes for the uncaged chickens, grazing sheep and goats as well. They still have instincts, those instincts will cause conflicts and injuries among themselves. Even though they are domesticated, livestock are social animals. So when one gets sick it must be treated quickly to prevent the entire group from being infected.
Sick and injured animals are not productive animals, so it is the goal of responsible producers to prevent these things from happening. Make no mistake, farmers and ranchers care if their livestock is sick or hurt and strive to prevent it. They can't economically take chances on this happening. This is how stalls, farrowing crates and layer cages came into existence. They keep animals separated to limit illness and injury. This is extremely important when giving birth, or laying eggs.
For example: farrowing crates have been the focus of much debate. They are designed to limit the movement of the female to prevent her from lying or stepping on her offspring. The average sow has eight pigs in a litter. In pen farrowing, half can be lost in the first few days due to the sow injuring or killing them by accident. This loss can be diminished greatly by farrowing crates. Sows are not confined to them for more than a few weeks, are monitored for sores and injury and let out for exercise while the crates are being cleaned. Sanitary conditions are imperative for keeping illness at bay. Logic says the more animals that make it to a marketable age, the more money the producer will make and the more improvements can be made to the facilities.
This is just one example of how responsible animal husbandry can be misunderstood. It is not the goal of livestock producers to deliberately inflict suffering on an animal. That is not what they are about. Efficiency and economics may be the basis of their business, but not at the cost of animal welfare. They cringe at the videos shown the uninformed public, because those videos would make anyone cringe.
For more information about animal agriculture advocates and the truth behind the cameras, may I suggest the following:
Texas Cattlewomen PEBA HumaneWatch National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA)
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