Sorry for sending it twice...

[Guest guest]

I sent this into the list through a link and then I remembered that I never

click any of the links people send in. So, here it is again.

This really pissed me off.

 

When Disasters Strike, Corporate Ag Can Turn a Cold Shoulder to Animals

In late February, when employees at two Ward Egg Ranch locations in San Diego

County, California, tossed at least 30,000 live hens into wood chippers, it was

more than the latest example of inhumane slaughter. It was also another piece of

evidence showing that U.S. industrial agriculture too often considers farm

animals little more than cogs in a machine—replaceable, disposable, and unworthy

of due care and respect.

 

These attitudes become readily apparent when emergencies arise, like the current

situation in southern California where nearly 3.5 million birds have been killed

since Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) was confirmed there on October 1, 2002. The

U.S. Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS), the agency tasked with

protecting America's " animal and plant resources from agricultural pests and

diseases, " doesn't even refer to the process as killing. APHIS refers to it,

somewhat antiseptically, as " depopulation. "

 

The tens of thousands of hens killed via wood chipper are not even included in

the official " depopulation " statistics compiled by APHIS. That's because this

flock was not infected with the deadly avian disease, but instead had the

unfortunate luck of being on an industrial egg farm located in a quarantined

county. When the hens were no longer productive—referred to in the industry as

" spent " —the quarantine meant that the owners couldn't move the birds to a kill

facility in northern California.

 

Out came the wood chippers.

 

But disregard for farm animals has played out in other ways as the state and

federal governments deal with the END crisis. The governmental eradication

process has involved killing not just infected chickens, but also uninfected

members of the flock as well as all birds within a one-kilometer radius of

inflected flocks. So, even though their primary justification is preventing the

disease from wiping out California's $3 billion egg and poultry business, state

and federal agencies have culled backyard flocks and much-loved companion

animals, a policy that has caused huge stress for birds and bird-owners alike.

 

Some examples of Exotic Newcastle Task Force actions taken from recent media and

web reports:

 

 

One method by which the task force kills birds in large quantities is to

transform a giant dumpster into a makeshift gas chamber. Pictures on the

Cocka2.com web site, which has monitored the END crisis closely, show task force

members dressed in biohazard suits stuffing birds into a massive dumpster

covered with a tarp. Once filled with enough birds, the task force then

apparently pumps in carbon dioxide to kill the animals. It's unclear whether

killing on such a massive scale, in which birds may be tightly packed into a

confined space, kills the animals humanely, or whether some merely suffocate

slowly.

 

Several media outlets report that task force members, depopulation orders in

hand, have appeared on the doorsteps of several " backyard " and pet bird owners

to unceremoniously kill the animals in front of the owners' eyes. According to a

March 28, 2003 report in The Press Enterprise, one Mira Loma, California, woman

said the task force arrived at her home " with a warrant, five sheriff's

deputies, and 10 task force members. " They proceeded to kill her seven birds

" without ever granting her the appeals hearing she requested months ago. " The

woman was quoted as saying, " I tried to stall for time to get someone who could

help me, but they threatened to arrest me and mace my dogs. "

Another Press Enterprise story, dated May 5, 2003, relates a similar tale of woe

from a backyard owner. This time, a Palmdale, California couple " screamed " and

" cried " as task force members killed the family's flock of 220 birds, including

chickens, peacocks, Egyptian geese, and Hawaiian nene. A day after the task

force cleaned up the couple's property, the husband and wife apparently found a

disturbing, if unintended, message on their answering machine: A task force

worker had accidentally dialed the couple on his cell phone and left a message

apparently ridiculing the husband for crying. The incident spurred the task

force to institute grief counseling for bird owners and sensitivity training for

field workers.

 

 

In January, The Press Enterprise reported that task force members were dumping

thousands of dead chickens into San Bernadino County's main landfill, in piles

as high as 20 feet. The dead birds were uncovered and exposed to the elements

and predators. This disposal method posed a risk of spreading the disease, since

wild birds could pick at the carcasses and carry the highly contagious disease

to other areas. The newspaper report led to a change in policy, and landfills

are now required to cover the birds with " compacted trash " within 10 minutes of

dumping.

 

The task force's quick efforts—one might even call them expedient—have

apparently done the trick for California's poultry and egg industry. The San

Diego Union-Tribune reported on May 1, 2003, that there were " no new cases of

infected poultry commercial flocks in four weeks, and reported cases among

backyard and pet birds, which once climbed by hundreds in a week, now only

trickle in at one or two a day, or none at all. "

 

But at what costs? Certainly at the cost of nearly 3.5 million birds, many of

whom were not infected at all. But also at a very steep public cost. Officials

estimate that $102 million has been spent to date on eradication and prevention

measures, which effectively acts as yet another subsidy of industrial

agriculture.

 

Indeed, these costs will no doubt continue as other disasters and diseases

emerge, all part of our ongoing willful ignorance toward animal suffering and

animal welfare. There appears to be little-to-no discussion among governmental

agencies about developing sound euthanasia and disposal policies when disasters

strike, such as Exotic Newcastle Disease. Nor has there been much talk about how

the high-density nature of industrial egg and poultry farms contributes to these

needless deaths.

 

As Dr. Michael Appleby, vice president for The HSUS's Farm Animals and

Sustainable Agriculture section, has noted in his paper, " What Price Cheap Food

in the USA?, " a low retail pricetag is often what drives producers to forsake

animal welfare for profit. But cause and effect are difficult to distinguish

here, as those industrial agriculture practices also seem rooted in a basic

philosophical disregard for animals and animal welfare, too.

 

After all, the bureaucratic reaction to END in California and other states is

not an isolated incident. In March 2003, another poultry operation, this one in

Puerto Rico, reportedly allowed more than 100,000 animals to die after the

company suffered a financial hardship. Several thousand birds starved to death

as the temporary assistance ran out. This case bears a striking resemblance to a

similar disaster that befell thousands of chickens at Cypress Egg Farms in

Florida and Georgia last year.

 

" Because each new disaster carries the potential for a massive animal welfare

problem, it's important that both producers and the government have plans in

place to deal with situations that are out of the ordinary, " says Tamiko Thomas,

an animal scientist and program manager with The HSUS's Farm Animals and

Sustainable Agriculture section. " And these plans should be based on sound

animal welfare practices, rather than on the economic worth of these unfortunate

animals. "

 

But even if attitudes cannot be changed, practices can, Thomas notes. One way

for large confinement operations to limit risk—both to their long-term economic

health and to the health of their animals—is to modify the agricultural

practices that endanger their animals, she says. By providing more space and

more sanitary conditions, producers could actually decrease their animals'

susceptibility to infectious diseases. A report by a European Union committee,

after all, cited overcrowding as a factor in the rapid and ferocious spread of

foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom.

 

" The U.S. Department of Agriculture should work with producers to lessen the

factors that predispose industry to disease outbreaks and improve biosecurity

measures taken on farms, " Thomas adds. " The USDA should also increase the

research needed to provide solutions to disease problems before they reach

epidemic levels. It is increasingly important to be proactive and preventative

in order to deal with the rising threat of disease, to protect animal welfare

and the safety of our food supply. "

 

2004 The Humane Society of the United States. All rights reserved.

 

 

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