|
True animal welfare expertsIn May of the year 2000, standing in the middle of the prairie in West River, South Dakota, it hit me. Animal agriculture is under attack and we are not even engaged in the battle. Another Hollywood actor was speaking in Mellette County, S.D., population 1,300, where animal agriculture is really the only economy in existence. James Cromwell stated, "We will eliminate animal agriculture from the soil of the United States." Something about the way he said that really hit me hard. And even more disappointing was the way that people, who make their living in animal agriculture, supported these ignorant statements. So many who truly want to eliminate animal agriculture spend their time preaching about animal welfare, but that is actually a front for animal liberation. On that very day in South Dakota, I decided that I needed to do something off of the ranch to ensure that a livelihood in ranching was actually an option for the future. I know for a fact that the toughest battles we face are those on the outside of our fences. I took action and found a way to get involved in educating the public about the importance of sustaining a future for animal agriculture. Seven years ago when I began this crusade, I started by trying to understand the animal rights movement. For the most part, the entire movement is about the ability to propagate images that lead to the harvesting of monetary assets based on people's love affair with animals. They find a heart-wrenching photo of an animal, make it look especially pathetic, and spread it far and wide while asking for donations to help save this poor creature. For far too long we have complacently sat back and hoped that if we ignored them, they would go away. Seven years have passed and I still get requests on a daily basis to explain the animal rights movement, mostly to people involved in food production. Now that the budgets of PETA and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have grown more rapidly than a colony of feral bunnies, we wonder what we should be doing. HSUS now has an annual operating budget of $140 million. They have openly admitted that they are stepping up their efforts, in a stepwise progression, to make animal agriculture illegal. They worked diligently to ban horse harvesting in California 10 years ago and the rest of the country thought it was just the liberal Californians that didn't "get it". Now, they have been successful in accomplishing the same task in the state of Illinois and have the momentum they need to accomplish a national ban. Why? Why are they able to convince the public and elected officials that finding a secondary use for excess, unwanted animals is a bad thing? For the most part they have engaged in a battle on the issue of proper animal welfare and the true stockmen, who actually spend their lives caring for livestock, have been deliberately absent from the discussion. A couple of weeks ago I drove to Illinois to testify about maintaining horse harvest as an option for unwanted horses. One gentleman gave me a bit of advice that I think every animal owner should hear. "Don't forget how many animals you have cared for in your life." Indeed! I am 40 years old and by some quick, cowboy arithmetic I have cared for over 1 million animals. Over 1 million living, breathing beings have completely relied on me to provide them with water, nutrition, shelter and protection from predators. The irony of this animal welfare issue came front and center last week. On my daily radio program, Rural Route, I happened to have Steve Hindi as my guest. Hindi has made it his personal mission to end rodeo and animal agriculture. Steve travels to rodeos around the country capturing images that portray rodeo in a cruel manner. While attending the National High School Finals rodeo last year, I saw Hindi videoing the event. I quickly made my way to a seat next to him for the remainder of the performance. Steve made a big deal out of what he called "spiking" bulls. He claimed that as bulls left the chute someone would slap the bull on the hip with a coat hanger. He contended that this was animal abuse. Most reasonable people would agree that it is virtually impossible for a human being to abuse a 2000-pound bull unless you were to withhold feed or water. Immediately after the radio show with Hindi, my daughter came to get me because a young colt was hung up in a fence. Human intervention saved the colt's life although a picture, snapped at just the appropriate moment, could have portrayed a very negative image on a website. That evening I went to the pasture only to find that another horse had killed a 3-day-old mule colt. How cruel is it to kill a baby? To top it all off, I found a cow that was struggling to have a calf. In fact, the calf would have never been born without human intervention and actually died during the birthing process. I can think of so many occasions in my lifetime of providing daily care for animals when cruelty from one animal to another is far worse than anything humans could do to an animal. Sows have farrowed large litters of pigs only to frequently stand up then kill all of their own piglets. Bulls and boars will routinely fight until either one or both of them are crippled or dead. My point is quite simple. As long as we have people who don't truly understand what animal welfare is listening to people with an agenda to end animal agriculture, those of us that actually raise livestock are going to feel like we are defending ourselves. If you have been in the business of livestock agriculture at any level you have experienced all or some of the same things that I have mentioned. It is high time that our customers and our elected officials hear from the true experts on the subject of animal care. You cannot afford to sit at home one more day and expect someone else to fight these battles. The war is on and the front line is moving closer and closer to your backyard. Unlike football, the best offense in this game is not a good defense. We need to take the initiative to be proactive, to speak up, to educate people about the facts and get involved in the politics that may determine the future of our industry. If not now, when? Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 6/11/07
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2008. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
