Fwd: Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights

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Fine, my argument is to go to a non-animal diet, and we won't have to "kill animals to feed people" as they say. Animal activists, UNITE! The livestock industry is going to be on our coattails!Paul Shapiro <pshapiro wrote: "Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights"Mon, 5 Feb 2007 18:47:50 -0500"Paul Shapiro" <pshapiro http://www.hpj.com/dtnnewstable.cfm?type=story & sid=18302 Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights (02/05/07 07:00) NASHVILLE (DTN) -- Recent initiatives like the one last fall in Arizona to ban veal crates and gestation crates for hogs show that it's time for the agriculture industry to do a better job countering attacks by animal-rights groups. -- Recent victories by animal-rights groups should serve as a wake-up call to ranchers, farmers and livestock feeders to

do a better job countering the attacks on livestock production in the country, according to some livestock advocates. "All of agriculture, we've played the fence too long," said former Texas Congressman Charlie Stenholm, now an agricultural lobbyist. "We have got to go on the offense." Agricultural animals are the largest consumers of corn and soybean commodities. If animal-rights groups continue to successfully pick apart livestock industries in different states, they also impact the markets for those grains. At least one person has protested in Nashville while the National Cattlemen's Beef Association holds its annual convention. A woman, painted like a steak, pretended to lie over a grill. Most convention-goers considered the protest largely a distraction from the issues at-hand and ignored it. That was a mistake, one livestock advocate said. "We don't have time not to address these people anymore," said Trent Loos, a rancher, journalist and

vocal livestock supporter. With losses to animal-rights groups in courts, state initiatives and in Congress, livestock producers are struggling with how to counter the growing influence of groups like the Humane Society of the United States. "Too many people in agriculture say 'My dog's really not in that hunt,' and when your dog gets into that hunt, you are looking for friends with you and they are saying the same thing," Stenholm said. "We've all got to get into it together." As spokesman for the Horse Welfare Coalition, which represents more than 200 agriculture organizations trying to keep horse slaughter legal, Stenholm knows the challenges of defending the industry. "You ought to read my e-mails," Stenholm said. "There's a lot of folks (who) think I'm a devil with horns." The livestock industry must counter the claims of animal activists, rather than come to livestock trade meetings and complain that

people don't understand animal agriculture, Loos said. "We have been absent from the conversation," Loos said. Livestock and general farm groups have been caught off-guard by the newfound political and financial capital of the Humane Society of the United States. The group bankrolled the initiative last fall in Arizona to ban veal crates and gestation crates for hogs. Similar fears on the attacks against livestock were raised earlier this month at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention as well. With a $120 million budget, the Humane Society has the finances to target animal agriculture across the country, as well as go after politicians who disagree with the group's agenda. Earlier this week, the group announced it would launch an initiative in Colorado similar to the Arizona ban but also expand it to ensure chickens have more room in hen houses as well. Loos told cattle producers the livestock industry must show the public

that there are moral and ethical justifications for taking the life of an animal to feed a person. The industry is losing that argument in some segments of society, he said. Mike John, outgoing president of NCBA, has spoken about animal-rights activists at almost every opportunity at the convention. "The only way we will be successful is to get producers to recognize it as a threat," John said. "The playing field has changed and we have got to change." Jim Warren, a sale-barn operator from Aromas, Calif., said it can be a struggle to rally the livestock industry. He helped organize the American Large Animal Humane Association five years ago in California when producers there started to see some of the first major attacks on their livelihoods. The group, however, has not received major backing from the national livestock groups, he said. He hopes the talk he has heard at NCBA could improve the industry's focus on activist attacks. "We're out here

trying to solicit some support," Warren said. "It's a challenge for us as an industry to tell the rest of the world what goes on in our business." The Humane Society also has led the charge to ban horse slaughter. Legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year, but stalled in the Senate. New bills are already being offered and such a ban could also find its way into the farm bill. Such battles should be a "wake-up call to what this movement has actually accomplished," Loos said. The problem in agriculture is most producers stay out of the fights that don't affect them. Cattlemen need to help defend the pork and poultry industries, whose practices are facing more referendums and lawsuits. "It's only a matter of time before we are defending whether beef cattle should be in a feedlot," Loos said. While producers may not think such a ban on feedlots could pass, urban residents in even major cattle-feeding

states are much more distant from the industry, Loos noted. "I'm not sure that wouldn't pass in even our greatest cattle-feeding states," he said. Currently, there is a battle in the Texas Legislature over whether a federal appeals court ruling that bans horse slaughter in Texas should stand. Decisions by the Texas lawmakers will be one of the next major fights between the livestock industry and animal-rights activism. "That's a battle we have to win," Stenholm said. "If we can't win this battle in Texas, then we are going to have deep trouble in animal agriculture all over the country." Interested in taking action online to help animals? Then join our online community and sign up for our Humane Action Network. Go to www.hsus.org/join . If there is no state and description in the subject line of a posting/alert, I will not be passing it on. It's the least everyone can

do.