by Gene Bauston,
Gene@farmsanctuary.org - Farm Sanctuary
From The Animals' Agenda - March/April 2002
New Jersey is the only state in America with a law
requiring the development of standards for the humane treatment of
farmed animals, and this provides an unparalleled opportunity to
prohibit inhumane factory-farming practices in the United States.
Specifically, New Jersey's law, passed in 1995, requires the state
Department of Agriculture to produce "standards for humane raising,
keeping, care, treatment, marketing, and sale of domestic livestock."
Certain practices commonly employed on farms are clearly not humane, and
therefore cannot be allowed under meaningful humane standards. Among the
cruel systems being banned across Europe -- and which should be banned
in New Jersey -- are battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates.
On industrialized farms, cows, pigs, chickens, and other
animals are treated like inanimate commodities rather than as sentient,
feeling animals. Farmed animals are specifically excluded from the
federal Animal Welfare Act and from most state anti-cruelty laws; as a
result, agribusiness systematically subjects animals to intolerable
mistreatment with impunity.
During a Farm Sanctuary investigation in early 2000 of
ISE egg factory in Broadway, New Jersey, two live hens were found dumped
in a trash can full of dead birds. After much effort, ISE was charged
with cruelty to animals and taken to court, but shockingly, the judge
ruled that the company was not guilty of animal cruelty. Even worse,
ISE's lawyer asserted that it was legally acceptable to discard live
birds in the garbage and to treat them as if they were manure. When the
judge asked, "Isn't there a big distinction between manure and live
animals?" ISE's lawyer responded, "No, your honor."
ISE and other egg producers commonly subject egg-laying
hens to blatant cruelty and neglect. Most laying hens are confined in
battery cages, barren wire enclosures that are lined up in rows, stacked
in tiers in huge factory warehouses. The birds are each given just a
half square foot of space and packed so tightly that they cannot even
stretch their wings. Constantly rubbing against the wires, the birds
experience severe feather loss, and their bodies are covered with
bruises and abrasions. Every natural chicken behavior is thwarted, and
the frustrated birds are driven to excessive pecking and fighting. To
reduce the injuries caused by this aberrant behavior, part of the birds'
beaks are cut off in a painful procedure called debeaking.
Modern breeding pigs fare not better than egg-laying
hens and live a continuous cycle of impregnation, birth, and
re-impregnation. They spend most of their lives confined in narrow metal
gestation crates where they cannot turn around. These imprisoned animals
experience a wide range of physical and psychological disorders. The
hard, slatted floors and lack of exercise cause crippling foot, leg, and
joint disorders, while constantly rubbing against the bars of t heir
crates causes o pen sores. Unable to fulfill their most basic behavioral
needs, the highly intelligent pigs suffer from depression and
frustration, leading to neurotic coping behaviors such as head-waving,
bar-biting, and chewing the air.
Calves raised for veal are confined just as severely,
spending their short lives chained by the neck in crates measuring just
two feet wide. They are unable to stretch their limbs, turn around, or
even lie down comfortably. This confinement prevents exercise and limits
muscle development, which keeps the calves' meat tender. Veal producers
also restrict the animals' diet, feeding them an all-liquid milk
substitute that is purposely deficient in iron and fiber in order to
produce borderline anemia and the pale-colored flesh fancied by
"gourmets." Calves fed this inadequate diet would not survive to
adulthood, and they are typically slaughtered at just 16 to 20 weeks of
age.
New Jersey's humane standards were supposed to have been
completed in 1996, but the state Department of Agriculture has yet to
fulfill it's statutory responsibility, thereby severely hindering proper
enforcement of the cruelty laws as they pertain to farmed animals.
Indeed, factory farmers as well as livestock transporters have recently
argued that the lack of standards has made the New Jersey animal cruelty
law unenforceable since the agency has failed to put farmers on notice
as to which practices are permissible and which are not. Furthermore,
given the fact that the legislature has directed the department to
promulgate humane standards, judges hearing cases involving cruelty to
farmed animals may be reluctant to substitute their judgment for that of
the Department of Agriculture.
A campaign is now under way to compel the Department of
Agriculture to take action. So far, the state has received tens of
thousands of letters, including several from legislators, urging that it
draft meaningful humane standards that outlaw battery cages, gestation
crates, veal crates and other cruel farming practices. State Assemblyman
Christopher "Kip" Bateman (16th District) summed up the situation well
in his letter to the Department: "New Jersey is in a position to play a
key role in improving farm animal welfare....I believe we have an
opportunity to prohibit inhumane practices that are already outlawed in
other countries and should be banned here in the United States."
Gene Bauston is co-founder and Director of Farm
Sanctuary, and has a master's degree in agricultural economics from
Cornell University.
Your Agenda: Pressure the state agriculture department
to comply with the law and draft humane standards that prohibit such
cruel farming practices as veal crates, gestation crates, and battery
cages. Certain farming methods are clearly inhumane, and therefore
cannot be allowed. Contact: Dr. Ernest Zirkle, Director, Division of
Animal Health, State of New Jersey - Department of Agriculture, John
Fitch Plaza, P.O. Box 330, Trenton, NJ 08625; fax 609.292.3978;
ernest.zirkle@ag.state.nj.us
"Reprinted with permission from The Animals' Agenda,
P.O. Box 25881, Baltimore, MD 21224; 410.675.4566;
www.animalsagenda.org ."
Email:
office@animalsagenda.org
[Editor's Note: Though the author of this article
concentrated on New Jersey, it's important that you contact your own
state representatives to encourage them to work on humane standards for
farm animals. For those outside of the U.S. contact your own officials
to find out your country's policies and encourage more humane treatment
for animals.]
Go on to Puppymill Protection Act
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