People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ activist Jacqueline Domac recently posted an article attacking the Future Farmers of America on one of PETA’s web sites. Fortunately, Domac’s article was up to PETA’s usual standards of truth and accuracy.
Domac’s article begins thusly (emphasis added),
Yakima County, Wash., prosecutors recently filed felony charges against five youths accused in the killing and maiming of 35 pigs at White Swan High School. Reports indicate that the pigs were repeatedly axed, beaten, and sodomized and then left to die in the school barn. The five students involved, all aged 12 or 13, were reportedly seen laughing in the back of the police car as they were driven away.
The lurid nature of this crime captured national attention, but what the media missed was the string of similar events occurring across the nation—all stemming from Future Farmers of America (FFA) programs, which sponsor the raising of animals for slaughter on public school grounds. The FFA program fosters young people’s natural empathy and compassion by having them care for animals, then forces them to sell these animals, whom they have nurtured, for slaughter at the county fair. Because the lessons of callousness that this process teaches have no rightful place in our school system, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on the Department of Education to immediately discontinue the use of animals in all FFA programs
- Miss Piggy, an animal in the William Turner Tech High School FFA program in Florida, was spared slaughter after the young student who had raised her pleaded for her life at auction. But when the pig was returned to the school to await transport to a sanctuary, she was repeatedly stabbed with a knife, and her pig companion was shot to death.
- A Hillsborough County, Fla., FFA teacher reportedly begged students to assist her in chopping off the heads of young rabbits. Ruling that this was a “common practice” on farms, the school board took no action against the teacher, who killed the animals herself.
There’s just one problem with these claims, according to the FFA — none of its members were involved in any of these three incidents. According to an FFA response to Domac’s claims,
The youths involved in the Yakima, Wash., incident of animal abuse were not FFA members or agricultural education students, and no involvement by FFA or agriculture students has been demonstrated or suggested by authorities. Nor are FFA members responsible for the events in Florida. PETA’s article seeks to create an impression that FFA and agriculture students were involved in attacks on the animals.
On top of that, Domac’s call for “the Department of Education to immediately discontinue the use of animals in all FFA programs” is a little odd since, according to the FFA, the organization and its programs do not receive any federal funding,
Funding for FFA on local, state and national levels comes primarily from members’ dues, sales of supplies and merchandise to members, and program fees paid by students and chapters . . . These collective funds [including from a long list of industry groups] make available important educational opportunities and award programs — at no cost to taxpayers — that provide further incentives for FFA members to further their education and career development.
Finally, FFA notes, correctly in this writer’s opinion, that exposure to FFA programs is likely to make students less prone to commit acts of violence or mistreat animals in their care. As the FFA argues,
PETA’s assertion that FFA members who work with animals in schools are “desensitized” and more prone to commit acts of violence against animals are unsupported and contradicted by experience. FFA members and agriculture students are taught to care properly for animals by understanding their biology, health and nutritional needs. There is every reason to belive that familiarizing students with the care and feeding of animals, whether livestock or pets, develops skills and promotes greater sensitivity to an animal’s well-being.
Source:
PETA Launches Attacks on FFA. Press Release, Future Farmers of America, June 4, 2004.
Future Farmers of America Must Go. Jacqueline Domac, PETA, June 2004.