Who defines humane treatment? - Page 1

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Who defines humane treatment?

A proposal in the U.S. House would take production agriculture standards out of the hands of professionals and turn them over to bureaucrats. That’s what I find worrisome about new animal welfare legislation by two U.S. representatives from the Left Coast.

HR 4733, The Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act, was introduced earlier this month by Reps. Diane Watson and Elton Gallegly, both from California. If passed, the bill would prohibit the government from purchasing animal products that are not "humanely" produced for school lunch and other federal programs.

 So who defines "humane?" That’s the problem. My friend and coworker Ken Hodges, who is an associate legislative director for the Texas Farm Bureau, says the bill would mandate arbitrary humane animal production standards. By arbitrary, he means standards developed without input from veterinarians or animal producers.

As Ken so aptly says, when we start having somebody who doesn’t understand animals deciding what is or isn’t animal cruelty, we have real problems.

Folks, we have real problems.

The legislation—which resembles doctrine espoused by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal rights groups—is based on the presumption that farm animals are not routinely treated humanely.

A few years ago that line of thinking would have been ridiculed. A decade of relentless propaganda, however, has changed public perceptions. A consumer suspicious of the way you care for your livestock is the new reality.

Under the microscope are practices that the public has been told are cruel, and now believe—practices such as battery cages, gestation stalls and most other confinement practices.

As a defense, agriculture points to painstaking animal welfare standards—proper veterinary care, fresh water, clean animal feed, etc. from birth to harvest—which have been developed through years of research by scientists and producers for every species of livestock. Those standards by and large have been developed to maintain healthy animals. And we can argue until the cows come home that healthy livestock are happy livestock.

Continued:

But reactive thinking isn’t cutting it anymore. The industry needs to get get ahead of this issue. We are never going to satisfy PETA and HSUS, and shouldn’t even try. But we can throw a barrier between them and the American consumer.

Is an "ethical standard of care" for livestock the answer? Should producers and researchers define animal welfare, and point to those standards when accused of doing wrong? If so, how far do we go and how do we implement it? And would it help?

 

 

 

This post should be bumped to the top. Dog people need to realize that we are all under attack by extremist animal rights organizations like HSUS. The legislation not only LOOKS like HSUS doctrine.. I'm sure that it actually IS their legislation, written by HSUS people. They've had their hooks into our legislators in California for a long time, now, and lobby heavily in California. Former political pimping on their part snagged "John's" like Richard Polanco and Bill Lockyer.

Folks, it's a very serious problem when a minority of well funded people with extremist groups can buy legislation to deprive you of your rights to ordinary things, like the occasional steak dinner out or the right to buy a purebred dog of your choice. But, this is what's happening in America (Where we are anything BUT free, these days).

California is also seriously discussing legalizing marijuana, so it can be taxed.. BRILLIANT!!! Now, how about getting off of the backs of business, effectively making it legal, too? California has driven virtually all of the little remaining industries out of state and offshore because of the really draconian regulatory schemes and penalties.. same that they want to impose on animal and ag related industries, too. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID....

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HSUS LOBBYING IN YOUR STATE

Dear SAOVA friends,

HSUS State Director Kim Alboum has now concluded the Lobby 101 Seminars in North Carolina, holding seminars in 9 cities around the state during February and March. Some seminars attracted less than a dozen listeners while a few did better with attendance at approximately 50. The seminars generated poor interest overall considering HSUS claims to have 240,000 members in the Tarheel State.

With little variation, the message was the same to all those who attended: legitimize the cause; go mainstream; get media coverage; talk to legislators and create relationships.

Alboum advised attendees that to initiate change, HSUS supporters need to mobilize, come together, and be viewed as mainstream. She blamed last year’s losses in the General Assembly on HSUS supporters’ inability to organize effectively. Alboum continued to encourage her audience to meet their legislators face to face; find out where they go to church; what outside groups they belong to; befriend their staff; and use HSUS fact sheets as hand outs for each introduced bill.

Alboum emphasized the importance of getting stories to the media to get their message out and spread the word.

HSUS STRATEGIES AND UPCOMING LEGISLATION

FIGHT AGAINST FACTORY FARMING. A strategy HSUS plans to employ is an alliance with the "local foods" people in the HSUS fight against factory farms and their effort to force veganism on the world. Alboum handed out copies of the 15th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour brochure (April 24 and 25), telling the audience to contact these farmers and ask them to help in the fight against animal agriculture. Alboum stated she has been contacting the farmers, already polarizing them with HSUS propaganda.

FIGHT AGAINST TRANSPORTING HORSES, PROCESSING HORSEMEAT.
Alboum briefly explained that horse processing plants for human consumption had been closed because HSUS had been successful in eliminating funding for federal inspection of the plants. Alboum justified the plant closings by stating that horse slaughter was inhumane, and that the meat was “tainted” and was not good for anything anyway. Now HSUS is fighting to stop all transportation of horses for slaughter outside the U.S. Clearly, Alboum is not well versed in the nutritional qualities of horsemeat, and chooses to ignore the fact there is a thriving international market for horsemeat which is high in protein and low in fat.

PUPPY MILL BILL.
SB460, the HSUS “Puppy Mill Bill” unfortunately passed the NC Senate in 2009 by one vote and is currently in House Finance. A call to arms was sent to the audience by Alboum to begin making calls to House legislators and to Julia Howard (Vice Chairman, Finance) in support of SB460 passage in the May legislative session.

Among the many exaggerations presented to justify the bill are claims that the original HSUS estimation of 200 large-scale breeders was wrong and it is likely that figure is double with at least 400 “puppy mills” operating in the state. Noteworthy is the ease with which the terms commercial breeder and “puppy mill” are used interchangeably.

Alboum informed her audience that “puppy mills” should be shut down because they spread Giardia, a “virus” contagious to humans. Again, Alboum is misinforming her listeners. Giardia is not a virus, it is a microscopic parasite found worldwide and is recognized as a common cause of waterborne disease in humans in the United States. The Giardia parasite lives in the intestine of infected humans or animals (e.g., cats, dogs, cattle, deer, and beavers) causing nausea and diarrhea. According to the CDC, anyone can get giardiasis including people who drink from poorly monitored wells, and backpackers, hi

Con't

 

Alboum informed her audience that “puppy mills” should be shut down because they spread Giardia, a “virus” contagious to humans. Again, Alboum is misinforming her listeners. Giardia is not a virus, it is a microscopic parasite found worldwide and is recognized as a common cause of waterborne disease in humans in the United States. The Giardia parasite lives in the intestine of infected humans or animals (e.g., cats, dogs, cattle, deer, and beavers) causing nausea and diarrhea. According to the CDC, anyone can get giardiasis including people who drink from poorly monitored wells, and backpackers, hikers, and campers who drink untreated water.

Alboum continued by stating that puppy millers from neighboring states, such as Virginia and Tennessee, are flooding into North Carolina following passage of regulation there. Did Alboum and HSUS have time to examine real estate records in three states in order to reach this conclusion or is this yet another wild accusation pulled out of thin air to create a crisis looking for a solution? As we have pointed out before, the same sound bites of breeders fleeing from one state to another are distributed by HSUS in every state with a pending breeder bill.

When questioned about why the bill did not include cats, Alboum’s answer was "baby steps, they are next, then birds." Alboum also expressed her disappointment that the original bill had been downgraded to complaint driven inspection rather than annual inspections. Likewise the numbers used to establish a commercial breeder (“puppy mill”) were increased, but Alboum stated that in reality owning 6 females should be the separating line between hobby and commercial breeder. Alboum assured the audience that getting ANY bill on the books was worth the effort as it could be tightened up later on.

HSUS is intent on regulating dog breeders. Alboum did not have specific details, but mentioned that HSUS was working on a plan to assist North Carolina counties with enforcement costs for SB460. Make no mistake - the animal rights agenda has nothing to do with welfare, it is about control. HSUS yearns to become an arm of the government as demonstrated by their previous scheme to be the enforcement agency for USDA kennel inspections and more recent petition to President Obama to appoint a Federal Animal Protection Liaison.

 

Control is right.. and Control starts with "C" and so does "corruption". What will happen will be a corrupt system of control, with no rights for breeders. Dog breeders, and soon after, ALL pet or animal breeders, will be regulated out of existence. HSUS and similar "AR" (animal rights) groups realized a long time ago that they cannot make pet breeding illegal.. What they CAN do is make it SO difficult and so heavily regulated that there is no way anyone can stay "in business". This is exactly what they are trying for. And, in the end, they will drive this industry (as all others) offshore, so that it is virtually impossible for anyone to buy a home-bred and raised puppy in the USA. Imports of dogs will then be the rule, and that will also be heavily regulated, so that it goes to insiders, who will be dealt with lightly.

Everyone is going to be VERY unhappy if this becomes the rule and norm. The supporters of HSUS and other AR groups will be very unhappy, too.. Because the imports will stop looking so much like "rescues" and will begin to look more and more like purebreds. They will still be sold in pet stores, in all likelihood, but the commercial pet industry (aka "puppymills") will have moved offshore, where it is virtually impossible to regulate or oversee. If it moves to China, they will have an additional advantage, because they can eat their surpluses and mistakes, or at least use the furs and render the carcasses for aquaculture and fertilizer.

Domestic private party and non-profit rescue operations are already finding out that they are just as much at risk of raids and closures under current "anti-cruelty" policies.. because the government facilities (animal control) and their contractors want this work for themselves and won't tolerate competition.. which private animal rescue operations really are!

The sooner we all realize that this is competition and an economic.. as well as an F'd up ideological war.. the better off we are.

The "Giardia" thing is funny, but typical. These people are idiots. They told me that the dark toes on my heavily pigmented sables and bi-colors were "feces stains".. Can you believe it? Trust me, it's true.. F'ing idiots and learned most of what they ever knew by picking our brains and lurking on lists like this, but still don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. You can't pick up 25 years of experience by lurking on a blog. Still, they pretend to be experts, and they walk around with badges and uniforms and people believe them. We are becoming a nation of morons, all of us...

After you all are done reading about the "Murder Hollow Bassets", read what happened to Floyd Boudreaux and his "Eli" line of APBT's. Tragic.. An American tragedy, and a travesty of justice. Those dogs were all killed.. wiped out and annihilated, in the name of "kindness", within 24 hours. Fortunately, Mr Boudreaux was acquitted and exonerated on all counts and is going after vengeance for his dogs. Godspeed, Mr Floyd Boudreaux!!!

Someday, H$U$'s caboose is going to catch up with them. Hopefully, soon..

Guess who's REALLY behind HSUS? A big, "greedy" (in my opinion) law firm in NYC, named Meyer, Glitzenstein and Silver. They've been making a lot of money on the tobacco industry. This is apparently their "pet" project?

Here's a link to a blog outlining information concerning Mr Boudreaux:

http://bluedogstate.blogspot.com/2008/10/pit-bull-breeder-floyd-boudreaux.html 

How infuriating for you!! "FECES STAINS!!!"???  GRRRRR

For the record, I call my bi color female (Indi) PIGPEN, because she is always dirty. Always. My back yard is all dirt and she alternates between digging in the dirt and digging in the kiddie pool. And she ALWAYS has a happy expression. In fact I took a picture of her while she was being bathed and I have never seen a sadder face....

I had never read the Murder Hollow Basset story until now.
The Boudreaux story I followed by the second, since all my dogs went back to Eli, and they killed those dogs faster than the blink of an eye. I seem to remember the Humane Society "claiming" that they had no room, no money, no foster homes, the dogs were dangerous...And they were afraid the dogs would be stolen... What a nightmare that was! 

Thanks for posting this. Definitely eye opening and I hope others will realize what's really going on...

Stacy