Tag: Miscellaneous

New Zealand's Egg Producer Federation Says It Would Prefer Bare Facts to Activists' Bare Bodies

In response to a campaign by animal rights activists in which models stripped to oppose cage production of eggs, the executive director of the Egg Producers Federation said he would prefer to debate the “bare facts” rather than “bare bodies.”

Egg Producers Federation executive director Michael brooks said in a press release,

This sort of publicity-seeking [by models stripping] trivializes a very important issue.

Brooks went on to note that the production methods of eggs are dictated largely by the need to present consumers with low cost food. According to Brooks,

This is an issue of the right of consumers to choose what sort of product they wish to buy. At present, less than 6 percent of eggs purchased are free-range. Over 92 percent are from caged hens with the balance barn-raised. Eggs are a vital and low cost source of protein consumed particularly by low socio-economic groups who cannot necessarily afford the much greater costs of free range eggs.

The public may say that they disapprove of caging in a telephone survey, but every day at the super market they buy crate produced eggs.

It is also an issue of the right to farm and behind the industry are families, individuals and communities that rely on egg production for their livelihood.

If we are to take actions that ultimately destroy an industry, we need to have very good reasons. Most of the arguments put forward by animal welfare activists simply do not stand up to scientific analysis

.

The Egg Producers Federation notes, for example, that the activists are wrong when they claim that egg producers remove the beaks from hens. According to the Egg Producers Federation,

Birds’ beaks are not removed and never have been. In fact, less than 40 percent of caged hens have the tips of their beaks trimmed — a process undertaken as small chickens when the beak is soft and there is little or no pain. It is a humane practice designed to avoid feather pecking and cannibalism. . . . Beak trimming is also practiced on free range farms for the same reason.

Brooks sums up by saying,

The point is that these matters are not simple or black and white, as the activists lead us to believe. They are trying to turn this issue into one of heroes and villains which is totally inappropriate.

On the other hand if I were an animal rights activist deciding between resting on the strength of my argument or models stripping, I think I’d have to go with the stripping models too.

Source:

Bare facts rather than bare bodies. Press Release, Egg Producers Federation of New Zealand, September 20, 2004.

Matt Prescott Keeps On Lying about Holocaust On Your Plate

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is still touring the world with its “Holocaust On Your Plate” display. In September, the display started making its way through Canada.

In Montreal, Matt Prescott set up the show across the street from a Burger King, but he apparently was taken aback by complaints that the campaign says that meat eaters are the moral equivalent of Nazis. So he did what most PETA representatives do when confronted with embarrassing arguments — lie. Prescott told The Montreal Gazette,

[PETA is] not saying meat-eaters are the equivalent of Nazis. We’re saying anybody who eats meat is guilty of holding the same mindset that allowed the Holocaust to happen. We can take a stand against that ever time we sit down to eat by adopting a vegetarian diet.

PETA is not saying meat-eaters are Nazis? Ah, that explains why PETA features a web-ad on its site with pictures of concentration camp victims on one end and pictures of slaughtered pigs on the other, and in between text saying, “In relation to [animals] all people are Nazis.” Because, of course, PETA is not saying that meat-eaters are equivalent to Nazis.

Source:

Philllips Square exhibit a shocker. Andy Riga, The Montreal Gazette, September 9, 2004.

Edward Furlong Arrested Freeing Lobster

Actor Edward Furlong, one of the stars of “Terminator 2,” was arrested at a Meijer grocery store in Florence, Kentucky after he and several friends remove lobsters from a tank at the store.

Managers at the store called police who arrested Furlong and arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of being intoxicated at a public place.

The 27-year-old Furlong apparently has a habit of compensating for his vegetarian diet by imbibing large amounts of alcohol. In September 2001 he was arrested for driving without a license, and then four hours later arrested again on a DUI charge after causing an accident.

Furlong was in Florence shooting a movie.

Source:

‘Terminator 2’ Actor Arrested. Associated Press, September 17, 2004.

HSUS Campaigns for Army to Stop Battlefield Medical Training with Goats

The Humane Society of the United States objected in September to the Army’s plans to injure goats in order to teach battlefield medical techniques to special forces units at Fort Carson, Colorado.

The training exercise calls for the goats to be sedated and then wounded. Special forces soldiers than treat the injuries. At the end of the exercise, the goats are euthanized.

HSUS sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking that goats not be used in the exercise. Michael Stephens, HSUS vice president for animal research issues said in a press release,

ThereÂ’s a certain implausibility to the claim that such an exercise would properly prepare anyone for the projected scenario of battlefield care. Of course, The Humane Society of the United States supports proper training of military medical personnel for the benefit of American soldiers, but injuring animals need not be part of the process. The Department of Defense has had nearly 20 years to figure out how to train army medics without harming live animals. If they can devise unmanned drones and bunker-busting bombs, surely they can figure out how to simulate human battlefield injuries without injuring animals.

. . .

The Humane Society of the United States, on behalf of our eight million constituents, will continue to urge the military to stop these senseless exercises. If the DOD doesn’t like the currently available alternatives, they should spend some money and effort into research on other methods of training.

That message certainly got through to goat farmer Karen Robinson, who told The Colorado Spring Gazette that the planned exercise was wrong because,

They [goats] are almost like humans.

For its part, the Army claims the goats are treated humanely and that using goats is vital to the Special Forces training. Rebecca Ellison of the United States Army Special Forces Command issued a statement saying,

The army will go forth with this training because it is vital in teaching special forces and other special operations medics to manage critically injured patients. In effect, this type of training is directly responsible for saving lives in real world combat situations. All training involving animals is conducted in accordance with established protocols and all applicable federal laws.

Using goats to practice battlefield medical techniques is a method that the Special Forces have used for almost 20 years.

Sources:

Goat lovers aghast over Army plan. Tom Roeder, Colorado Springs Gazette, September 9, 2004.

Using injured goats for Army training causes controversy. KOAA, September 9, 2004.

Humane Education — Just A Synonym for Animal Rights Indoctrination

The Long Island Press recently ran a fawning portrayal of humane education efforts in New York State.

New York is one of a number of states that has a law requiring that courses in human education be offered. That law requires that,

The officer, board or commission authorized or required to prescribe courses of instruction shall cause instruction to be given in every elementary school under state control or supported wholly or partly by public money of the state, in the humane treatment and protection of animals and the importance of the part they play in the economy of nature as well as the necessity of controlling the proliferation of animals which are subsequently abandoned and caused to suffer extreme cruelty.

. . .

The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit or constrain vocational instruction in the normal practice of animal husbandry, or prohibit or constrain instruction in environmental education activities as established by the department of environmental conservation.

For some animal rights activists, this is a wedge to get animal rights ideology into elementary schools. The Long Island Press profiles Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers executive director Lisbet Chiriboga. How does Chiriboga see humane education (emphasis added),

Our vision of humane education is broad in that it calls us to question and examine our cultural assumptions regarding the inherent value of all species and nature, helps us explore our responsibility toward the Earth and other living beings and enables us to connect our daily choices with their global impact.

The Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers site provides links to three articles explaining human education, including Lydia Antoncic’s “A New Era of Humane Education: How Troubling Youth Trends and a Call for Character Education Are Breathing New Life into Efforts to Educate Our Youth about the Value of All Life.” Antoncic is the founder of HEART, and her May 2003 article is based on an alarmism about the state of American youth,

A passing glance at newspaper headlines today reveals what
haunts most parents and educators: violence among our youth is extensive,
drug and alcohol abuse is prevalent, and teen pregnancy is a
common occurrence. These symptoms suggest a chronic deficiency in
the ethical education of our youth.

In fact, the teen pregnancy rate has dropped every year for more than a decade in the United States (the 2000 teen pregnancy rate was 28 percent lower than the 1990 rate). Arrests of youths for violent crime have also declined significantly since the early 1990s. Apparently teens have somehow been able to change their behaviors without humane education, thank you very much.

For Antoncic and her ilk, the problem with the educational system is that it reinforces the widely held view that it is morally permissible for human beings to use animals for food, medical research and other uses. For example, in a section of her paper entitled “What Humane Education Is Not”, Antoncic writes,

At first glance, it appears that the approach described above would produce uniform results, but that is not the case. Misinformation has produced many efforts to include materials in curricula that clearly do not constitute humane education. For example, a well-meaning school may attempt to teach kindness and respect to animals through projects that glorify the Iditarod Race in Alaska. In such projects, educators portray the dogs as happy and eager to run the treacherous race across Alaska in the name of sport. The dogs who suffer injuries and death in this grueling expedition are mentioned rarely. Instead, promoters depict the race as a noble act by the dogs.

The treatment of farm animals is another area that is not fairly represented in schools. Animal industry advocates have gone to great lengths to create learning exercises for students that depict farm animals as happy creatures that can move around freely, spend leisurely time outdoors, and exhibit natural behaviors. Nowhere do teachers discuss the reality of factory farming, where animals are barely given freedom to move or express natural behaviors. In addition, other special interest groups work to preserve and teach their way of life through education programs targeting youth, despite evidence indicating ill-effects, such as gun camps that target youth in an effort to preserve hunting or websites tailored for young girls that promote the consumption of animal products. Without adequate monitoring, it is difficult to ensure that materials provided to schools embody the true principles of humane education.

Antoncic then approvingly quotes a special-ed teacher from Ohio as saying,

Far from being value free, schools promote, if not actively, at least in subtle
ways, the following beliefs: Animals are ours to use as we see fit; their suffering
is inconsequential; our benefit is the primary criterion governing
their use; animals are simply a collection of muscles, bones, nerves and
tissues; and the use of animals is not an issue to be seriously discussed.

Antoncic does, to her credit, argue that students should be allowed to make up their own minds, but based on the examples from HEART’s website, this is simply lip service — the goal is not to promote a reasoned debate about animal use (which would be inappropriate, to my mind, for elementary students anyway), but rather to convince students of the correctness of the animal rights position. For example, HEART on its website offers examples from teachers to “inspire others.” Here’s one such example from reading specialist Trudy Schilder,

I am a Reading Specialist who works with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders…very open and impressionable age range. I have been a “humane education specialist” since the age of 4! Teaching has given be the blessed opportunity at every crossroad to show these children what it means to me “humane”.

My favorite prompt is this: “How many of you believe that animals have feelings?”… To those who agree, I ask “What kind of feelings do animals have?” If your lucky, one child might pop right up with, “The same feelings we have!” That is the answer I am going for, but usually it takes a whole list of feelings at which time I ask them…”Do these feelings sound familiar”? Looking for, “Yes, these are the same feelings we have”. This opening launches an enthusiastic, and “eye opening” discussion for those who didn’t raise their hands in agreement. This dialogue, led by the teacher can go in many, many directions. At some point I segue into my belief that insects and bugs have the same feelings as well!! It often takes some loving convincing, but it is well worth all the time it takes!

This is not letting children make up their own minds, this is straightforward ideological indoctrination of very young children. Is this what New York state wants animal rights activists to be doing? To lovingly convince 3rd graders that insects are just like them emotionally?

Sources:

Teaching kids humane education. Alicyn Leigh, Long Island Press, August 19, 2004.

Teacher Connection. HEART Web Site, Accessed September 16, 2004.

A New Era In Humane Education: How Troubling Youth Trends And A Call For Character Education Are Breathing New Life Into Efforts To Educate Our Youth About The Value Of All Life. Lydia S. Antoncic, May 12, 2003.

New AVMA President Calls for More Leadership on Animal Welfare Issues

Incoming American Veterinary Medical Association president Dr. Bonnie Beaver said at that group’s convention that the AVMA must more directly engage in issues of animal welfare or risk ceding that territory to the animal rights movement.

In an July 23 speech to the AVMA House of Delegates, Beaver outlined her vision of the AVMA’s role in promoting animal welfare saying (emphasis added),

The third area of importance to AVMA is animal welfare. Veterinarians are the ultimate authorities in animal welfare. It is important that we retain this authority in light of challenges by animal rightists and humane organizations, as has been evident in recent newspaper attacks. Peter Singer, president of the Animal Rights International which was one of the sponsors of the New York Times ad, told the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee that when his group goes to a legislative body asking for a new law, one of the first questions he gets is “What does AVMA think about this?” When it becomes clear our positions differ, our position was chosen over his. Mr. Singer made it clear to the Committee that he was determined to remove obstacles in the way of his issues. As the world changes, our need to become more outspoken in this area has increased so that the image of the veterinarian being the one true advocate for the animal is not lost. Animal rightists are pushing their agenda in small increments under the guise of animal welfare and with mistruths, but the public is not aware of the slippery path ahead. Just as happens in many of the other areas we touch, we have accomplished a lot for a little. As an example, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a $17 million budget with a staff of 200. The Humane Society of the United States has a $70 million budget, 300 staff members, and no animal shelters to support. Other animal rights organizations have a combined income of over $14.5 million. How about the AVMA? As you know, our $24 million budget is divided into many areas. Currently we devote around $200,000 and one FTE to animal welfare activities! Truly, a mouse that roars.

For several years the issues associated with animal welfare have been on our radar screen, but as you know they have become increasingly visible over the last few years. In the Executive Board visioning sessions during this past year, animal welfare moved into the highest concern for issues we face. The Executive Board then reemphasized the importance of AVMA’s role in the animal welfare arena, with veterinarians as the experts. Only in this way can we serve our biggest public–the animals.

Good for Dr. Beaver.

Sources:

New AVMA president calls for leadership in animal welfare. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, September 1, 2004.

Building for the Future by Serving Society. Bonnie Beaver, September 1, 2004.