Fox hunting club that first met in the 1700s holds last meet after new law

 

One of Scotland’s oldest fox hunts has come to an end after 252 years following the introduction of new law on hunting.

The Hunting with Dogs bill, which went into effect earlier this week after being passed in January, outlaws hunting and killing wild mammals using packs of dogs except in limited circumstances.

Following its introduction, the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt – which first met in the 1700s – announced it had held its final meet.

“We were humbled to see the huge support by riders and supporters for our modest hunt in the west of Scotland,” the group wrote on Facebook, also thanking “all farmers and landowners who have allowed us to cross your land in some tricky weather over the years.”

“A big thank you to every single person who has helped out in any way over the years, big or small, it is all very much appreciated,” it said.

“Finally we wish to thank our lovely hounds, we look after them with great love and affection, often better than we do ourselves.”..more

Animal activists call for rodeo boycott

 

The annual Fiesta De Los Vaqueros opened this weekend. The iconic Tucson event is under fire from animal activists who say the tradition is animal abuse.

"Rodeo animals are forced to perform. They experience severe stress and fear," said Brittany Michelson, an animal welfare advocate with In Defense of Animals (IDEA).

Another activist, Gary Vella, said, "This is just putting them in the ring for kicks." Vella is with SPEAK, or Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom.

Animal welfare groups say animals, like this calf shown in a video from the 2019 Tucson Rodeo, are often injured during rodeo events.

"They are routinely shocked to cause them to buck and run out of the shoot," Michelson said electric prods can deliver up to 6000 volts of electricity. One brand even warns against using the prod on horses...more

1st Amendment Protects Activist Recordings of Factory Farms, Rules Federal Judge

Iowa animal-rights groups are celebrating after a judge ruled that the state cannot criminalize unauthorized recordings of factory farms, slaughterhouses, puppy mills, and other livestock facilities.

On Monday, Judge Stephanie Rose of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa ruled that a 2021 Iowa "ag-gag" law aimed at preventing undercover investigations of the state's agriculture facilities by animal rights activists presents an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. The law criminalizes making a video recording while committing the already-illegal act of trespassing on private property. Rose ruled that while the state of Iowa is free to continue punishing trespassing, it cannot try to stop individuals from making recordings while doing so. Thus, as much as the state may dislike undercover recordings of alleged animal abuse, such actions are nonetheless protected by the First Amendment. 

On August 10th, 2021, a collection of animal-rights organizations sued the state on First Amendment grounds. The organizations sought to block the enforcement of the state's ban on unauthorized recordings while trespassing, arguing that the statute "impermissibly restricts speech by making it a crime to place an electronic surveillance device on trespassed property." The state of Iowa argued that the law prohibits conduct, not speech, and thus is not subject to First Amendment oversight. Even if the law did regulate speech, the state claimed that it "is narrowly tailored to a significant governmental interest" and would thus be constitutional.

Judge Rose sided with the animal-rights organizations, arguing that the act of making a video recording is a form of protected speech...MORE

PETA Advocates Sex Strike to Punish ‘Meat-Eating Men’

 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal-rights advocacy organization, is urging women to put their foot down against “meat-eating men” by withholding sex.

“We all know them—the suburban men with beer bottles in hand, brandishing tongs while cooking sausages on their expensive gas grills. These barbecue masters believe that they can prove their masculinity to themselves and their fellow humans through their consumption of meat, not only hurting animals but also harming the planet,” began Elena Waldman in a blog post introducing the initiative.

“The science speaks for itself: A study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that men contribute significantly more to the climate catastrophe than women, primarily through their meat consumption,” continued Waldman before announcing that “that’s why PETA’s proposing a strike on sex with meat-eating men to persuade them to go vegan.”...MORE

Animal Rights Activists Rescued Two Piglets From Slaughter. They Wanted to Get Caught.

Liberating the pigs from a Smithfield facility was just the first step in Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer’s grand plan. Now they want their legal case to start a sea change in animal rights.

...Years later, Picklesimer faces charges of trespassing, theft, and burglary as part of criminal proceedings in three states. In each case, Picklesimer and other animal activists broke into farm and animal testing facilities, where they recorded the prevailing conditions and “rescued” the animals therein. Total penalties span nearly $332,000 in restitution debt and potentially decades in prison.

In the most widely publicized case, Picklesimer and other activists, including Wayne Hsiung, co-founder of animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, entered Circle Four Farms, a massive Utah pig facility owned by Smithfield Foods, in 2017. The activists filmed the pigs’ conditions, whisked two piglets away to safety, and sent the footage to the news media. With Smithfield’s backing, Utah prosecutors filed felony charges.

Several other activists have since taken plea deals that prevent them from publicly disparaging the company. But Picklesimer and Hsiung have declined similar offers. Instead, they’re pressing for a trial they hope will go down as a pivotal moment in the history of the animal rights movement. They seek to convince a jury that the moral urgency of saving the piglets at Circle Four Farms justified the alleged crimes, establishing a landmark legal precedent that incorporates a factory farm animal’s suffering into the law’s moral calculus. Whether they will be permitted to make this argument at all will be determined by a Utah judge, following a major pretrial hearing set to take place Thursday.

The protracted case is one of several involving DxE activists, whose tactics testing the frontiers of the law distinguish the group in an animal rights movement that has recently been inclined to work squarely within the legal system.

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If you have any interest in the animal rights movement and its efforts to affect your industry and local communities, then you should take the time to read this.

Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect

 Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic.

That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California.

“Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns,” said Kim, who for 15 years has run SAMS American Eatery on the city’s busy Market Street. “It could be devastating for us.”

At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market...MORE

Colorado ranchers fight ballot proposal they say would be devastating to ag industry

Saja Hindi

Colorado ranchers and farmers are fighting against a 2022 proposed ballot measure that they say is yet another attack on the state’s $47 billion agriculture industry.

Initiative 16, a section of which is referred to as “Wilbur’s Law,” adds livestock and fish to the state’s animal cruelty law and redefines what constitutes a “sexual act with an animal,” including practices often used in breeding and animal husbandry. It also requires that slaughtering of livestock only occur if an animal has lived a quarter of its natural lifespan — estimated at 20 years for a cow, for example — which would vastly change current practices, considering cattle are often butchered well before they turn 3.

The website for the ballot initiative, called Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation, or PAUSE, says it will extend animal welfare rights to all farm animals and that there is “no rational reason to exempt farmed animals from basic abuse laws that currently exist to protect our pets.”

“After seeing with our own eyes, thousands of chickens on a Colorado organic free range farm left without food and severely abused, we knew there was a discrepancy between the public image and the reality of some farms,” the PAUSE website said.

The two designated representatives of the initiative, Alexander Sage of Broomfield and Brent Johannes of Boulder, did not return The Post’s multiple requests for comment. They would have to gather 124,632 valid voter signatures to get it on the November 2022 ballot.

A coalition of livestock and farming groups called Coloradans for Animal Care opposes the possible ballot measure and challenged the decisions of the state’s Title Board with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. The coalition believes the title includes “political catchphrases” meant to sway voters. Its members also argue that the proposal deals with at least two subjects when ballot measures can only have one, and that the Title Board’s rules are misleading.

Carlyle Currier, a rancher from Molina and president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, said it simply on the coalition’s website: It’s the “most radical and extreme ballot initiative Colorado has ever seen.” Already, Logan County commissioners signed a resolution opposing the initiative, according to the Sterling-Journal Advocate.

Colorado Livestock Association CEO Bill Hammerich said not only would it hurt the state’s agriculture industry, it’d affect meat and meat product exports, which make up nearly 14% of Colorado’s exports.

“Talk about devastation,” Hammerich said. “Our rural communities would be totally devastated by this.” He added that the Front Range communities would also feel the effects in the long run, because they wouldn’t be able to get local meat.

Specialty producer Jennifer Melichar, who owns Boulder Beef and ranches in La Salle and Longmont, said the slaughtering age restriction is particularly harmful. It’s not financially feasible to feed cows for that long, said Melichar, who generally processes her animals at 18 months.

Not to mention, she added, if ranchers wait that long to process meat, it’ll be tough and flavorless, and consumers would see more fat in the meat. Melichar castrates the steers on her ranch at birth to keep the meat tender, which she said would also be prohibited.

Worker safety is another concern, said northeastern Colorado dairy farmer Mary Kraft. Her farmhands artificially inseminate cows — which would be against the law if the ballot measure passes. Doing so eliminates the need for herd bulls, which are notoriously dangerous, she said, and keeps the cows producing milk.

...The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association is also against the measure, writing that it would have “significant, extremely negative impacts on Colorado’s animals, their owners and the veterinary profession.”

“Every veterinarian takes an oath to protect animal health and welfare, prevent and relieve animal suffering, promote public health, and advance medical knowledge,” it said. “Initiative 16 threatens all of those commitments.”

The group worries that veterinarians will face animal cruelty charges for performing routine procedures like spaying and neutering if the measure is passed as written. PAUSE supporters do not believe this is the case, according to the FAQ on their website.

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PETA: Using Animal Names as Verbal Insults Is ‘Supremacist Language’

 

Katherine Rodriguez

The animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging the public to stop using animal names as verbal insults to other humans because it is “supremacist language.”

Words can create a more inclusive world, or perpetuate oppression.

Calling someone an animal as an insult reinforces the myth that humans are superior to other animals & justified in violating them.

Stand up for justice by rejecting supremacist language. pic.twitter.com/HFmMWDcc5A

— PETA (@peta) January 26, 2021

For example, the group said if you want to insult someone for their lack of bravery, call them a “coward” instead of a “chicken” because the term is demeaning to chickens.

“Words can create a more inclusive world or perpetuate oppression. Calling someone an animal as an insult reinforces the myth that humans are superior to other animals & justified in violating them,” PETA added in the tweet. “Stand up for justice by rejecting supremacist language.”...MORE

 

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PETA has, from time to time, come up with some interesting PR gimmicks. On this one though, I'm not too CHICKEN to tell them they're just a bunch of ignorant PIGS!

 

Biden’s latest executive action on chickens and meatpacking workers, list of future actions

Amid Joe Biden’s flurry of executive actions in the first few days of his presidency, one in particular stands out for animal welfare and meatpacking worker advocates. Biden withdrew a Trump administration request to raise the maximum speed at which chicken plants can operate from 140 birds per minute to 175 birds per minute...

Interestingly, the action was taken through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget. OIRA is a fairly obscure agency but arguably the most important regulatory body in the federal government, because it has the power to review regulations from all other agencies. The Biden administration has, at least on an interim basis, installed renowned labor lawyer Sharon Block as the top political appointee at OIRA. Block has repeatedly argued that the agency needs to reorient itself toward defending the interests of workers, a goal that blocking the line speeds rule certainly helps achieve.

...Advocates have other hopes for Biden, too. Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, offered a number of funding options the group wants Biden to pursue in a statement to Vox:

We’d like to see funding incentives for producers to shift from confining egg-laying hens inside cages to cage-free housing and moving mother pigs from gestation crates to crate-free conditions. Not only does this better the treatment of animals, but also potentially mitigates the risk of disease spreading through cramped confinement operations. We’d also like to see funding for research into improving and developing plant-based proteins and cultivated meat to decrease the demand for products coming from factory farmed animals.

Of course, Biden has been president for less than a week. He has nearly four more years to pursue policies to undermine cruel, anti-worker factory farming practices, and a long list of policies worth considering.

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Celeb-loved animal rights activist accused of staging dog abuse

A Los Angeles animal rights activist is accused of staging gruesome dog killings during trips to slaughterhouses for footage in his foundation videos, according to a report. Marc Ching, who runs the Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation, allegedly paid a butcher in Indonesia to hang a dog in one video and burn it to death so he could stage the scene for the camera, the Los Angeles Times reported. His undercover reels from slaughterhouses were brought into question by local animal rights activists in Indonesia, Cambodia and elsewhere in Asia who said that the killings depicted are much crueler than the normal methods there, the outlet reported. Several butchers captured in Ching’s videos said he showed up on a visit to a market in Tomohon, Indonesia, asking to buy dog meat in 2016, the outlet said. Ching — who previously served time for kidnapping before launching the foundation — then requested that they were slaughtered in specific ways, including being tortured alive, while he filmed the gruesome scene, according to the report. Raw footage obtained by the newspaper appears to back up claims that Ching had orchestrated the grisly slayings...MORE

Chicago Bans Horse-Drawn Carriages Starting in 2021

The steady sounds of clip-clopping hooves pulling creaking carriages will be absent from the streets in Chicago starting next year after the City Council on Friday voted to ban horse-drawn carriages. Under the ordinance, which is effective Jan. 1, 2021, operators will be unable to renew their licenses, and the city will stop issuing new ones. The horse-drawn carriage industry has been shrinking for years. The city now has 10 carriage licenses that will expire at the end of the year, The Chicago Tribune reported. At one point, it had 60 licenses available, according to The Associated Press. Chicago joins a handful of other cities that have already banned horse-drawn carriages, including: Salt Lake City; Biloxi, Miss.; Camden, N.J., as well as Key West, Palm Beach, Pompano Beach and Treasure Island, Fla., according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In Montreal, horse-drawn carriages were prohibited starting on Jan. 1, 2020. For years, animal rights activists have called the carriage-horse industry abusive and cruel but supporters have argued that the horses are treated humanely and the carriages are a romantic link to history, provide jobs and appeal to tourists. No horse-drawn carriage can carry more than seven passengers, and the horses must be kept off the streets when temperatures reach either 15 degrees or lower, or 90 degrees or higher, according to Chicago city regulations. Dennis French, a veterinarian, professor at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and vice president of the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois, addressed the City Council on Friday to speak out against the ordinance. He said claims of mistreatment and insufficient care were unfounded. “Representatives of the Horsemen’s Council have repeatedly inspected these horses, the harnesses that are used on them and the stables where they are kept, and we have found no causes for concern,” Dr. French said. “These horses are well cared for, healthy and they like to work.” But Kitty Block, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, welcomed the city’s move as a step to help protect the horses...MORE

Animal rights groups blame COVID-19 on farming

Animal welfare groups are using the COVID-19 crisis to attack the meat packing industry and farmers who raise cattle, pigs and poultry. In the last week or so, several groups have blamed “factory farming” for pandemics like COVID-19 and said more will happen unless intensive agriculture comes to an end. “The exploitation of 50 billion animals globally on factory farms not only causes suffering to animals, these systems are increasingly being implicated in heightened public health threats and disease risk to humans,” said World Animal Protection, which has offices in Toronto. “Sixty percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning they originate from animals. And while COVID-19 can be traced to poor wild animal welfare, diseases such as swine flu and bird flu emerged from farmed animals. If we are to avoid further pandemics and the crisis we are all living through today, we must also look at the role intensive farming systems play.” The World Animal Protection criticism comes at an unprecedented time for livestock producers. Pork and beef processing plants have closed their doors in Alberta, South Dakota, Minnesota and other states because workers are infected with the coronavirus. That has cut the number of animals going to slaughter and reduced prices for producers. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association has proposed measures to cope with the closure of the Cargill processing plant in High River, Alta., announced April 20. The measures include funding for a set-aside program that would cover costs to put cattle on maintenance rations rather than finishing rations, limit feedlot placements and establish a committee to match market-ready cattle with available slaughter capacity, the Western Producer’s Barb Glen reported. As well, Beef Farmers of Ontario has asked its members to delay the sale of cull cows because the beef processing sector doesn’t have the capacity right now. World Animal Protection questions that recommendation, saying it will cause unnecessary harm. “These animals are often already in poor health and this has the potential to elongate their suffering,” World Animal Protection said. World Animal Protection isn’t the only animal rights group using COVID-19 to bash farming. Earlier in April ,The Hill, a publication in Washington, D.C., published an opinion piece from Carter Dillard of the Animal Legal Defense Fund Dillard was less tactful than World Animal Protection, encouraging investors to pull their money from agri-business. “The divestment activism that has helped shut down and transition off fossil fuels needs to set its sights on the factory farming industry,” he wrote. “It’s time to shut down this industry before it breeds another virus that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans…. Second, as we phase out of animal agribusiness — and the festering factory farms and wet markets rife with the disease — we need to establish new legal protections for animal populations and habitat.”...MORE

‘They Are Not Our Friends’: California Officials Say Animal Rights Extremists Used COVID-19 To Halt Racing

For animal rights extremists who have been lobbying to halt California horse racing for the last several years, the coronavirus pandemic provided an opportunity too good to resist. That's the theory shared by several in California racing, including Thoroughbred Owners of California president and CEO Greg Avioli. In a call hosted by TOC Friday, Avioli and Craig Fravel, chief executive officer for racing operations for The Stronach Group, indicated they thought interest from the Los Angeles County Health Department stemmed from complaints from animal rights extremist groups. Fravel mentioned that several public information act requests are pending to try to confirm. “We have seen multiple social media posts urging members to weigh in with Alameda County, LA County, Orange County, to use this as an opportunity to shut down racing,” said Avioli. Social media posts and activity on a recent California Horse Racing Board teleconference have appeared to suggest that people who previously sent letters and comments to local officials about their ethical objections to racing were now reframing their complaints to focus on the potential of COVID-19 spread in the barn area. “I'm very passionate about the subject,” Avioli said. “It's one thing to support animal welfare, but the extremists who want to end horse racing. We cannot work with them. They are not our friends. They've largely lied and they've been given a free run on the lead. The TOC are working with a number of people throughout the state and we are preparing a very strong response both to them directly and to the legislature and members of the administration office...MORE

Vegan Society Tells Bosses to Police Jokes, Give Vegans Own Fridge Shelf at Work

The Vegan Society has said that vegans should be given their own shelf in refrigerators at work and employers should protect them from offensive jokes about their dietary choices. The recommendations come in the group’s guidance Supporting Veganism in the Workplace published this week. The document was written following a judge in an employment tribunal declaring last month that ethical veganism is a “philosophical belief”, like a religion, which should be protected against discrimination by workplace law. The Vegan Society’s document recommends that staff requiring a uniform or special equipment, such as leather safety boots, should be offered non-animal alternatives. It also says that vegans should have their own isolated shelf in the work refrigerator — “above non-vegan foods” — so that their food does not have to touch meat or other animal products like milk or cheese...MORE

OK, that does it...This is making me ill...I need a break from this insanity...don't know if I will be back today or not. 

Lock the gates; the activists are coming

Amanda Radke

In a world where we ask advocates to be transparent and farmers/ranchers to be willing to share their stories, it is met with hostility, bullying, threats and harassment. I know because I’ve been on the receiving end of it a lot throughout the course of my career. Yet, I’ve never actually had an activist show up on my property.
However, all that might change very soon. And while I still believe in being transparent, open and authentic on social media, the idea that activists could come onto my property and steal my animals in the name of liberation is downright terrifying.
...While it might be hard to top the these acts of violence, perhaps the most chilling and disturbing example is of the political variety — activists are lobbying to allow civilians to open up your stock trailers or sneak onto your farms and “free” the livestock under your care.
...As these activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) face jail time, in Berkely, Calif., the Peace and Justice Commission recently passed a resolution that asks state leaders to protect whistleblowers who trespass on farms and ranchers to expose animal cruelty or rescue abused animals.
This recommendation is now in the hands of Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin for consideration.
If passed, this resolution would allow activists to walk onto your private property and simply take any animal they feel is being neglected or abused. This wouldn’t be considered theft, invasion of private property or violation of your personal freedoms and liberties.

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Year End Spending Bill Includes Animal Wellness Victories

The Congress is poised to pass a massive Fiscal Year 2020 spending package with a series of pro-animal provisions, many pushed by Animal Wellness Action, the Animal Wellness Foundation, and other animal welfare organizations. The House should vote on the $1.4 trillion measure today, and the Senate is expected to follow suit and send the bill to the President by the end of the week. The bill includes the Rescuing Animals with Rewards (RAWR) Act, authorizing a rewards program through the State Department to crack down on wildlife trafficking. That measure passed both chambers previously, so the inclusion of the measure is no surprise. It is the second free-standing animal protection bill that will become law in the 116th Congress, following the enactment of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which the President signed earlier this month. The spending bill directs USDA to restore animal welfare inspection reports and Horse Protection violations on its website – a reversal of an adverse USDA action that the agency took at the beginning of the tenure of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. In February 2017, the agency all but eliminated the public’s ability to view inspection reports related to the Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act, including the treatment of animals in commercial dog breeding operations (“puppy mills”), research laboratories, zoos, and Walking horse shows. The bill also urges the pertinent agencies to more aggressively enforce animal welfare laws. There is strong language directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “make it a priority to investigate and prosecute violations of animal welfare laws,” and requires the Agency to provide a report within 120 days regarding the specific steps the DOJ is taking to enforce such laws. The Animal Wellness Foundation and Animal Wellness Action have made enforcement of our animal fighting, horse protection, and other anti-cruelty laws a top priority and have launched a nationwide campaign to enforce the laws related to cockfighting and dogfighting, including a $2,500 reward program for tips leading to a conviction. The Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Act, which extends the federal animal fighting laws to the U.S. Territories, takes effect this Friday, December 20th. Here is a summary of other key provisions:
-$2 million for a grant program to help domestic violence shelters accommodate pets. The program was authorized in the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, which AWA and AWF worked to get signed into law last year.
-Defunding of horse slaughter inspections, effectively ensuring that slaughter plants won’t start operations in the U.S. The permanent solution, however, is the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, which would ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and stop the export of horses for slaughter for human consumption. Passage of this bill is an AWA and AWF priority.
-Language on trophy hunting, directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to re-examine its policy regarding the importation of sport-hunted trophies from elephants and lions.
-Funding for enforcement of the Horse Protection Act at $1,000,000 – a twenty percent plus increase. This funding enables USDA to enforce federal laws against “horse soring” – a cruel practice where Tennessee Walking, Racking, and Spotted Saddle horses are painfully tortured to achieve a high-stepping gait in horse shows.
-A long-standing restriction on issuing permits to Class B dealers who sell dogs and cats for use in research, protecting our dogs and cats from these predators...MORE

Activists are ramping up with new tactics to end ag

Amanda Radke

...Whether it’s activists scheming to catch a “gotcha” moment on camera or environmentalist groups gunning to gobble up and “retire” acres of prime rangeland, not to mention the Silicon Valley investors of the fake meat companies slinging mud our way, there are far greater challenges facing our industry today than our grandparents could have ever imagined. It’s scary to even think about, to be honest.
1. “American Prairie Reserve just as bad as the Missouri Breaks Monument” by Ron Portner for the Billings Gazette
This is a scary example of how the activists are working to gain control of the land in order to eradicate farmers and ranchers from the fabric of our nation.
Poertner writes, “APR is gobbling up farms and ranches to stitch together 500,000 acres of deeded property with 3 million acres of public land to create a wildlife reserve larger than Yellowstone Park. The Bureau of Land Management facilitates that effort by its stated intention to approve APR’s grazing leases for bison and in so doing essentially grants operational control of huge tracts of public land to APR.”
2. “Meet the activists risking prison to film virtual reality in factory farms” by Andy Greenberg for Wired
This is a must-read article, and it’s hard not to feel an icy cold chill — not because of the dramatized horrors perceived and imagined by the writer, but because of the absolute terror I would feel about activists sneaking onto my property in the middle of the night and putting myself, my livestock and my home at risk.
“We’ll have a precedent that says the right to rescue is legally recognized, that if an animal is suffering, ordinary citizens have the right to give them care,” [Wayne] Hsiung [cofounder of Direct Action Everywhere] says. “I’ll go right back to the factory farm, literally right after the trial, walk right back in and take another piglet out.”
3. “Animal rights activists suspected in Wisconsin deer stand damage" by Tim Nelson for MPR News
It’s not just animal agriculture that is in the crosshairs of activists; hunters cannot escape the damage to personal and private property done by these organizations. With graffiti reading, “Hunt the hunters” painted inside the destroyed deer stand, it appears the activists even want to threaten the lives of these outdoorsmen.
Nelson writes, “Authorities in Wisconsin are investigating damage to deer stands and trail cameras, possibly in connection with the Animal Liberation Front animal rights group. Photos posted to the sheriff's office Facebook page show toppled and broken deer stands sprayed with profanity along with the symbol and initials of the Animal Liberation Front.”
4. “Ohio woman wearing fur is stabbed by animal-rights activist in church, police say” by Morgan Phillips for FOX News
Phillips writes, “Police believe that Meredith Lowell, 35, stabbed the woman wearing fur boots based on a prior arrest in 2012, in which Lowell was charged with attempting to hire a hitman to kill a person wearing fur.”...

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Ranchers Beware Of Rancher Advocacy Program

Greg Henderson

I’m not ashamed to say I had beef for dinner.
Most of you reading this were raised the same as me – taught that all God’s creatures in our care deserve to be fed and sheltered accordingly, and free from abuse; even those that would eventually become food for our families.
Renee King-Sonnen does not share all my views about animals – she’s a vegan. What makes King-Sonnen unique is that she’s a rancher gone vegan – and she’s convinced her husband, Tommy, too.
Renee moved to the Sonnen Ranch in 2009, a 96-acre spread 50 miles south of Houston where she became a little too attached to one of the calves she named Rowdy Girl. You can read Renee’s full version of events at her web site Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, but the short version is that she convinced Tommy to become a vegan and turn their ranch into a sanctuary.
Before we wander too far down this path, let me make clear I have no issue with Renee and Tommy turning their ranch into an assisted living facility for cows. It’s their property and their cows. If they want to sing lullabies and tuck their cows in at night, more power to them.
I do, however, have some concerns with the Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP), launched by Renee to help “transition cattle ranches and animal farms away from animal agriculture into viable veganic, compassionate businesses.” Her words, not mine.
Apparently, becoming vegan and launching a bovine retirement village was so inspiring Renee wants to share.

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Harvard Law Clinic Aids Animal Welfare Groups’ Lawsuit Against United States Department of Agriculture

Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic sued the United States Department of Agriculture Wednesday on behalf of several animal rights groups for allegedly ignoring a 2014 petition calling on the federal agency to protect non-human primates used in lab research. The animal welfare groups — New England Anti-Vivisection Society, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and International Primate Protection League — called on the USDA several years ago to widely disseminate standards promoting the psychological well-being of primates used in research in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act. In particular, the plaintiffs are calling for standards similar to those adopted in 2013 by the National Institutes of Health for chimpanzees used in federally funded research, according to court documents. The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts under the Administrative Procedures Act. The Administrative Procedures Act requires federal agencies to respond to rulemaking petitions within a “reasonable” amount of time. The plaintiffs in the case claim that the USDA violated the act. Harvard Law School students Brett W. Richey and Boanne R. Wassink are serving as counsel in the case. The two work under the supervision of the Director of the Animal Law and Policy Clinic Katherine Meyer. The animal law and policy clinic is one of the law school’s 22 in-house clinics. The clinics provide law students with the opportunity to work on cases as they complete their education. Richey said the lawsuit’s immediate goal is to get a response to the petition, but that they have additional longer-term goals. “We’re really hoping that through this lawsuit and maybe future action in the clinics that we can get some better, stronger regulations in place to promote the psychological well being of primates because primates have a lot of psychological, mental, emotional needs,” Richey said. Wassink added that in addition to the case’s value, the work also provides good experience for law students...MORE

The strange tale of Biden’s bid to ban horse meat

In 2013, an oil heiress hired a Florida state senator to lobby the federal government on behalf of a pet cause: banning the slaughter of horses for meat. The lawmaker, Joe Abruzzo, was a close associate of Frank Biden, the younger brother of then-Vice President Joe Biden. At the time, the younger Biden was looking for state funding for his charter-school business, and Abruzzo sat on a key appropriations subcommittee in the Florida legislature. The two men met frequently. So it was only natural that, when the horse-slaughter measure stalled in Congress, Abruzzo sought Frank Biden’s help. As those involved recounted months later in video-taped remarks for an equine welfare conference, the vice president quickly went to bat. "My brother's long-term relationships in the Senate proved to be the final nail in the coffin to be able to pull this thing forward,” Frank Biden said on the video, recounting the group’s successful efforts to change the law. Those involved now deny Abruzzo requested Frank Biden’s help enlisting his older brother’s support or that Frank Biden ever sought charter school funding from Abruzzo, though the two men scheduled a meeting to discuss “charter school funding” a month before Abruzzo began lobbying on the slaughter measure, according to emails obtained by POLITICO through Florida’s public records laws. They say any action they did take was all for a good cause. But it was also part of a decades-long pattern in which the private business dealings of Joe Biden’s relatives have overlapped with Biden’s public duties. The Democratic front-runner has categorically denied taking official actions to benefit his relatives, telling POLITICO in August that he maintained an “ absolute wall” between their business dealings and his role as Barack Obama’s vice president...MORE

So there you have it sports fans: A rich woman, who inherited oil money, spends $900,000 for a lobbyist, who contacts Biden's brother, and bwallah, an entire private industry is banned and thousands of abandoned horses are subjected to a slow, painful death. 

First, this should suggest to you how far beyond the original intent of our Founding Fathers the feds have trampled.

This also demonstrates how vulnerable ag producers are as a result of  becoming so intertwined with federal programs, in this case meat inspection. Think of the possibilities. Livestock production contributes to climate change...just stop funding meat inspection for certain types of livestock. Apply that approach across the broad spectrum of federal ag programs and you will see how scary it can be. What is produced and how it is produced, all controlled by the federal political process.