Sunday, February 22, 2009

Ca. legislator introduces bill to ban tail docking of dairy cows

Capital Press reports:

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has introduced a bill that would ban the practice of docking the tails of dairy cows. Florez, calling the practice of severing most of a cow's tail unnecessary and cruel, declared the bill a good start in his efforts to make a central issue of animal welfare in agriculture. His efforts, he says, come in response to the overwhelming voter approval in November of Proposition 2, which prohibited tight confinement of pigs and chickens. Noelia Silva-del-Rio, Tulare County dairy advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension, is conducting a study that so far suggests that 89 percent of the state's dairies do not dock tails. Florez is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture, which was renamed and reorganized in January. It was previously known as the Senate Agriculture Committee. Florez has made animal welfare a prime topic. On Tuesday, his committee will hold a hearing on the topic. "This is a great place to start and we'll start to look at other things," he said. "But we're very, very focused on trying to figure out what are the animal welfare issues that we have ignored for so many decades here in California."...

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