SEE ALSO:
"Cattle Tether / Pig Gestation Crate Bill Withdrawn in California," AnimalRights.net, July 10, 2003.
"Bill Leaves Bad Taste with Farmers," New Jersey Herald, Mar. 6, 2003.
"Veal Farms? What Veal Farms?"; Commentary, Center for Consumer Freedom, Mar. 10, 2002.

Amish Veal Producers Threatened by NJ Politicos
Consequences for All Livestock Farmers?

By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt

WHILE AMISH AND MENNONITE farmers were busy feeding their veal calves in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and two dozen other states, they lost a key vote in New Jersey, a state which raises zero veal calves.

Masquerading as "anti-cruelty", the proposed New Jersey veal legislation attempts to outlaw reasonable confinement of animals, in this case tethers and stalls, two of the most common methods of holding animals safely and comfortably on farms. The bills have been solidly rejected by experts involved in daily hands-on animal care (researchers, vets, scientists and farmers), since they seek to ban practices supported by the American Veterinary Medical Association, which continuously evaluates appropriate farming practices.

New Jersey Senators ignored the fact that state humane guidelines for a variety of animals, including veal calves, are being drafted by experts at the legislature's request and are expected to be finalized within the next two months. Instead, they sought to earn kudos as "humane" legislators, passing bill S1478 on Jan. 23 (22-4, with 14 abstentions).

Animal Rightists Exploit Urban-Rural Disconnect

Most Senators seemed to be stumped by the concept that dairy cows give birth to both female and male calves. Females are born, of course, to be milked one day, but males grow up to be bulls with no value to dairy farmers. New Jersey's dairy bull calves are therefore shipped out of state to bring value as a secondary industry, veal farming.

The leading producers of veal in the U.S. are small, isolated Amish and Mennonite communities, which account for as much as 45% of national production, and 60-70% of production in the east.(1)

Cared for primarily by the women and children of these communities, the animals live in a protected environment, tethered in individual stalls. At 20 weeks of age they are sent to market, weighing 450 lbs or so. Any part of the animal not suitable for human consumption is used by other industries such as pet food companies and, of course, mink farming.(2)

The New Jersey bills were endorsed and lobbied by a laundry list of animal rights groups, including Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States. The debate over veal farming blazed on the Internet, a realm where few Mennonites and no Amish venture since most of the sects have no electricity. In fact, the Amish run the stereotypical small farms that green utopians and so-called "animal welfare" groups insist they are working to save. So it's ironic that the New Jersey vote supported an agenda that will deliver a blow to the idyllic farms of times past.

Ignoring the Experts

The bills were obviously drafted not by veterinarians concerned with the health of the animals, but by vegans promoting a plants-only diet, and were designed to:

• promulgate urban myths about veal farming;
• raise costs for farmers;
• dictate housing and nutrition practices that are detrimental to veal calves!

Livestock farmers everywhere should be appalled that so-called "animal welfare" groups endorsed these bills - bills that will actually hurt animals and the farmers who care for them.

Zero veal calves are raised in New Jersey and therefore its Senate has no jurisdiction over veal farms. However, passage of this legislation does tell the world that New Jersey representatives are useful pawns when it comes to spreading nonsensical animal rights propaganda.

Hopefully legislators in New Jersey's Assembly with be tougher and wiser and vote no on A1948, sending a strong message of support to family farmers who will be watching closely as this state with no veal farmers votes on veal farming.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Veal USA.com has a special section on New Jersey politics, including what you can do to help the farmers and the bull calves at www.vealusa.com/nj/new_jersey.html

Notes / Resources:

(1) See for example www.vealusa.com/info/history.html.

(2) See Super Duper Recyclers - How Fur Farmers Turn Waste into Beauty, FCUSA commentary, Oct. 28, 1999.

Legislative history of these bills is at www.njleg.state.nj.us

On Jan. 15, 2003, the AVMA approved replacing the former position on "Veal Calf Welfare and Production Guidelines" with a simplified position, "Veal Calf Welfare." The revision was made because the American Veal Association provides extensive welfare guidelines, and some information in AVMA guidelines did not reflect current practices. The AVMA also consulted the American Association of Bovine Practitioners before taking action. The simplified AVMA position emphasizes veterinary oversight, adequate nutrition and lighting, appropriate environments that prevent injury to the calf, and provide proper ventilation, temperature, and humidity control. www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/jan03/030115m.asp

There is no exemption for animal agriculture in state cruelty statutes already on the books. Any farmer who deviates from accepted humane practices, neglects or abuses his animals, can be brought up on general cruelty charges under state law. For specifics on New Jersey statutes see www.animal-law.org/statutes/newjersey.htm

Recommended reading: "Veal Stalls Are Not 'Crates'. Veal Production Is Humane," by Drew Vermeire, chairman, International Committee for Veal Welfare, June 8, 2003, in response to LA Times op-ed "Singer supports hog-crate legislation in CA"; available on-line to registered LA Times users at http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-singer8jun08,1,2594542.story. Registration is free.

In fall 2002, Florida voted to outlaw confinement systems for pregnant pigs, spelling trouble ahead for anyone using a stall, pen, cage or corral.

Bankrolling the $1.4 million campaign behind this constitutional amendment were the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Farm Sanctuary and the Fund for Animals.

"We want to begin an orderly transition to humane and sustainable agriculture," said HSUS spokesman Chris Bedford, quite reasonably, to the Des Moines Register. But this "transition", said the reporter summarising Bedford's views, "begins with the phase out of livestock confinement buildings."(1)

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that means no more barns, sheds, pens, crates, cages or stalls. Will fences be next? And tethers are also under siege (see main story), so plan on throwing out your pet dog's kennel and leash!

So if they're so opposed to "confinement", they must support the ultimate in "free range", right? No, they still oppose hunting, fishing and trapping.

In the words of HSUS senior vice-president Wayne Pacelle, "We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. ... One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."(2)

And that's what the Florida campaign was all about: the end of livestock confinement, followed by the extinction of livestock. Further down the road comes vegetarianism - no hunting or fishing, remember - and ultimately a world of vegans, because milking wild animals for dairy products would be exploitation too.

Thanks to the new confinement regulation, Florida's pig farmers will no longer be competitive and pigs will soon become "extinct" on the state's farms.

Now HSUS is objecting in New Jersey to stalls and tethers used on bull calves, and has formed an alliance with BayKeepers and the Sierra Club to launch an attack on Iowa agriculture.

(1) In "The confinement question", Des Moines Register, Nov. 17, 2002.
(2) Quoted in Animal People, May, 1993.

Trent Loos Tales / The Truth Be Told

For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.

To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit Fur Commission USA's Fur on Film at http://www.furcommission.com/video/index.htm

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