Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Taping of farm cruelty is becoming the crime
On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another
captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging
piglets into the air. And at one of the country’s largest egg suppliers,
a video shows hens caged alongside rotting bird corpses, while workers burn and snap off the beaks of young chicks. Each
video — all shot in the last two years by undercover animal rights
activists — drew a swift response: Federal prosecutors in Tennessee
charged the horse trainer and other workers, who have pleaded guilty,
with violating the Horse Protection Act.
Local authorities in Wyoming charged nine farm employees with cruelty
to animals. And the egg supplier, which operates in Iowa and other
states, lost one of its biggest customers, McDonald’s, which said the
video played a part in its decision. But a dozen or so state
legislatures have had a different reaction: They proposed or enacted
bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms,
or apply for a job at one without disclosing ties to animal rights
groups. They have also drafted measures to require such videos to be
given to the authorities almost immediately, which activists say would
thwart any meaningful undercover investigation of large factory farms. Critics call them “Ag-Gag” bills...more
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