Are Miracle of Life Exhibits humane?

New moms at a county fair Miracle of Life exhibit.

How would you like to give birth in an arena under a hot tent in front of hundreds of noisy strangers throwing things at you, yelling and snapping pictures? It’s doubtful you would like the stressful conditions and neither do the poor farm animals who are subjected to this every year at state and county fairs. In Michigan, the Michigan State Fair Miracle of Life exhibit draws thousands of visitors to gawk at and harass farm animals giving birth each year. Now smaller county fairs are trying to emulate the attraction.

If you ever raised cattle, hogs, sheep or goats you know that they prefer to give birth at quiet times of the day or night, without humans present and away from the herd. This is to avoid harm to the young and to allow a quiet time of bonding between mother and young. Dairy cows have the least amount of mothering instinct left as it common to remove calves from mom directly after birth. They are often used in these exhibits, but they still feel stress giving birth in these conditions.

Yes, sometimes caretakers are present to observe and monitor the animals as they give birth on the farm but these are people the animals are used to and most caretakers are taught to stay quiet and interfere as little as possible. The animals are generally in the comfortable surroundings of the home barn or pasture.

The poor, heavily pregnant animals in the fair spend days being poked, prodded, stared at and surrounded by strange noises and smells. Then they are asked to labor and give birth before an arena of noisy spectators. No matter how quiet the attendants try to keep the crowd, you can bet the laboring mom is aware of the crowd. Since farm animals seem to have some ability to delay labor, most tend to give birth late at night or in the early morning when the fair exhibit is less crowed and noisy. So it’s silly to subject them to the conditions of the “Miracle of Life” exhibit anyway.

At the State fair MSU veterinary students are generally there to monitor the births. They spend a great deal of their time trying to keep people from feeding the animals inappropriate food, or doing too much poking and prodding and trying to keep the noise down. They are to be commended for the generally excellent care they give the animals but they should really be protesting the inhumane and stressful conditions the animals are placed under. In smaller fairs local 4-H or FFA youth are generally the animal’s caretakers and these kids are often distracted and ill equipped to handle problems.

Once the animals are born, they too are subjected to all the noise, picture flashing, prodding to make them stand up or walk, poking and “petting”, and dirty fingers stuck into their mouths to suck on. Since all kinds of livestock are being exhibited at these fairs and visitors may have been touching them shortly before they arrived at the birthing tent, they are also subjected to diseases. It’s hard to imagine a more stressful start to life than being born in a fair exhibit.

If they are left with their moms, the moms desire to protect their young must make it extremely stressful for them when they are surrounded by “danger” from all sides. It would be interesting to see a study done to determine how well the youngsters from these exhibits survive and grow and whether or not the mothers are affected by the stress and produce less milk or stop caring for their young.

It’s not wrong to breed farm animals, nor is it wrong to exhibit them. But the stress caused to pregnant animals in labor and to newborns by exhibiting them for the amusement of crowds is wrong and inhumane. Show videos of birth if the feeling is that people need to see it. Also baby farm animals should not be exhibited before they are at least a week old and then they should be kept from too much handling.

It’s hard to imagine that the Humane Society, who is on the set of every movie that uses animals, does not protest this practice of forcing animals to give birth in public to draw fair crowds. It’s also hard to believe that the MSU veterinary school, 4-H and FFA condone and participate in these stressful, inhumane exhibits in the belief that they educate people. If watching a cow give birth kept a city teen from getting pregnant or everyone watching was going home to help their own animals give birth then maybe we could say it was educational. When these exhibits are tolerated they encourage the practice of letting the family pet have a litter so the children can see the miracle of birth.

Why not pay pregnant women to give birth in an arena at the fair? They would be doing it willingly and it would be the Miracle of Life every teen should see.

The author of this article is not a member of any animal rights group.