NEWSBYGENE BAUR

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Last month, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) published an article that announced: “Veterinarian's Oath revised to emphasize animal welfare commitment: Prevention of animal suffering also a key addition.” The updated oath, which was adopted despite stiff opposition within the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), reads as follows with additions in italics:

"Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health and welfare, the prevention and relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public health, and the advancement of medical knowledge."

For decades, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has upheld the status quo and defended cruel factory farming practices, including intensive confinement systems like veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages. In 2002, as Florida’s voters pondered whether to become the first U.S. state to outlaw gestation crates, the AVMA adopted a formal position statement endorsing these 2-foot-wide metal enclosures to confine breeding sows. Thankfully, voters rejected the AVMA’s antiquated position, and gestation crates are now illegal in Florida.

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Dark, filthy warehouses that reek of excrement. Masses of animals in distress. Mutilated beaks and toes. Sick, injured birds left to suffer and die without anyone to help them. These are not the kinds of images we tend to think about at Thanksgiving, yet they are indicative of the reality faced by more than 46 million turkeys raised every year in the U.S. for this holiday alone.

Selectively bred by the industry to grow extremely large and fast, and fed high-calorie diets designed for rapid weight gain, today’s commercially-raised turkeys become so top heavy that their legs can barely hold them. The birds have been so profoundly altered that they also cannot breed naturally, and so the industry relies on artificial insemination as the sole means of reproduction.

Commercially-raised turkeys are packed by the thousands in factory farms, where each is allotted just three square feet of space. The crowded, stressed birds are unable to engage in natural behaviors and resort to pecking and fighting. To minimize resulting harm, the industry painfully removes portions of the birds’ beaks and toes, leaving them disfigured for life.

And as if this were not bad enough, the deplorable conditions these birds are raised in, paired with their unnatural genetic makeup, lead to illness and injury, and many birds on factory farms are left to languish without care and die.  Those who do survive are shipped to slaughterhouses where, exempt from animal protection laws, they meet an equally brutal end. For turkeys, this is the sad truth behind Thanksgiving.

Gene Baur, Co-founder and President of Farm Sanctuary, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

The recent recall of half a billion eggs contaminated with salmonella is another reminder about how harmful industrial animal farming is. Thousands of consumers have been sickened, experiencing diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever. While no deaths have been reported, salmonella can be life-threatening, especially to people with weakened immune systems.

Hopefully the attention garnered by this recall will help raise awareness about the bigger issue of factory farming and food related illnesses in our country. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that “foodborne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.” We cannot expect healthful, wholesome food to come from a rotten system where living, feeling animals are treated like commodities.

Roughly 95 percent of the eggs sold in the U.S. come from hens in battery cages, small wire enclosures that are lined up in rows and stacked in tiers in huge, factory farm warehouses. A single building can hold more than 100,000 birds, who are packed so tightly that they cannot even stretch their wings. The hens are unable to engage in basic natural behaviors and suffer both physical and psychological disorders. Just like other animals (including humans) who are subjected to extreme stress, they are more susceptible to disease.

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

In Ohio, half a million citizens signed petitions this year to place a measure on the statewide ballot to outlaw veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages. As the deadline to submit those signatures approached last month, agribusiness came to the table and agreed to phase out veal crates and gestation crates and to disallow any new battery cage operations from being constructed in Ohio. The fact that agribusiness leaders agreed to phase out veal crates and gestation crates, and put a moratorium on new battery cage facilities, is significant, indicating that these systems are coming to be widely recognized as unacceptable. Although we weren’t able to achieve a full phase out of battery cages at this time in Ohio, the signatures gathered for the initiative will remain valid and they can be submitted in the future if need be.

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

This week, the animal protection group, Mercy For Animals, released a heart-wrenching undercover video from Conklin Dairy, located in Union County, Ohio, near Columbus. This disturbing footage shows workers brutally beating cows with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks, breaking their tails, and violently punching, throwing and kicking young calves. Workers then brag about torturing the helpless animals. In response, Farm Sanctuary issued a press statement calling for better farm animal protection laws, and we contacted local authorities to offer rehabilitative care and lifelong shelter for animals in need from Conklin’s farm.

At Farm Sanctuary, we are not strangers to confronting extreme animal abuse, and indeed, have witnessed it firsthand, and have provided rescue and refuge for thousands of abused farm animals. This utterly unconscionable behavior is a logical extension of an industry attitude which sees animals as mere units of production, rather than as feeling, sentient individuals. In the animal agriculture industry, bad has become normal. On factory farms, animals are subject to unspeakable cruelty every single day. In battery cages, gestation crates and veal crates, chickens, pigs, and calves endure confinement so extreme that they cannot stand up, turn around, stretch their limbs, or lie down comfortably. Unable to exercise their most basic natural behaviors, these animals exhibit signs of extreme psychological distress. This daily reality for millions of farm animals across the nation is rarely covered on the nightly news. There, cruelty is just a way of doing business.

This latest news about the Conklin farm is escalating by the hour as people

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Across the U.S., hundreds of millions of farm animals, including calves raised for veal, sows exploited for breeding and hens used for egg production, are confined in crates and cages so tightly that they cannot walk, turn around or stretch their limbs. The animals experience both physical and psychological disorders, and their confinement is so cruel that it is being phased out across Europe.

Seven U.S. states have now enacted legislation to reform inhumane factory farming systems, including California, where Farm Sanctuary worked alongside citizens in the Golden State to pass a voter initiative that won by a two to one margin in 2008, outlawing veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages. One year later, the Michigan legislature enacted a similar law. But, unlike agricultural leaders and lawmakers in other states, agribusiness officials in Ohio and their legislative cronies have vehemently opposed basic humane reforms.

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Our food choices have profound consequences, not just for our own health, but for the well being of other animals and the entire planet. Choosing sustainably grown plant foods instead of animal products is the single most important thing that we can do as individuals to lighten our environmental footprint.

Growing societal awareness about industrial animal agriculture is spawning a food movement in the United States. Citizens oppose factory farming and want healthier food produced in a more responsible way, and the market is now beginning to reflect these sentiments. Farmers markets, which enable consumers to meet farmers, are popping up in both rural and urban areas. Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs) where citizens invest in a farm at the beginning of the growing season and receive shares of the harvest throughout the year are expanding. Backyard gardens and Community Gardens are also sprouting up, and there is even a Community Garden, dubbed "The People's Garden," at the U.S.D.A. headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama has planted an organic garden at the White House to promote healthier eating. Grocery stores, restaurants and other retail establishments are offering soymilk and other plant-based alternatives to cows' milk and other vegan options are increasingly accessible, as well.

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemaker network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Discussions about our health care system reached a fevered pitch recently in Washington, D.C. with Congress addressing a massive health care bill. Disagreements abound on various policy matters, but there is no question that our nation’s health has deteriorated and health care costs have increased substantially and are not sustainable. We cannot continue accepting poor health and disease as normal, and depending on pharmaceuticals to treat preventable illnesses.

It is critical to promote healthier plant-based eating habits and to lower the risk of disease in the first place. Politicians and the mainstream media have been slow to address the importance of disease prevention; however, the concept is finally beginning to surface, at least in general terms. Shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the health care bill, an ABC News commentator spoke to a national audience about the need for “fundamental” change and discontinuing our “bad habits,” and on CNN, Dr. Andrew Weil highlighted the importance of “disease prevention” and “health promotion.” Meanwhile, Michelle Obama has planted an organic garden at the White House and is urging school children to exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables to combat obesity and other lifestyle related health problems.

Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

In February of this year Smithfield Foods’ CEO, Larry Pope, spoke with meat processors at the National Meat Association’s annual conference. His presentation was recounted in an article by Tom Johnston in meatingplace.com, an ag industry trade outlet, where I often keep tabs on the industry’s latest movements. In this article, Pope “pointedly expressed a grim outlook for the industry’s future.”

He expressed concerns about agribusiness’ poor economic performance and growing worries about issues like swine flu and a “deteriorating public image.” Amid a growing popular awareness and concern about factory farming’s cruel treatment of animals and irresponsible practices that harm the environment, it is telling that titans of this industry are beginning to acknowledge problems. During his presentation, Pope stated: "Just this week I promoted somebody — and I can't even believe I'm saying this word here, folks — to a chief sustainability officer."

Pope pointed out that processed meats had been profitable, but is concerned that the current situation would not continue long into the future. The article went further to explain: “Meat processors have been benefitting from producers' woes, which have afforded them plentiful raw materials at bargain prices.” Referring to people who raise the animals, Pope says, "When you see the losses that are going on in live production, these folks are not going to be able to continue operating like they are.”

Our animal-based factory farming system is wasteful and unsustainable, and it has only been profitable because of billions of dollars of tax payer subsidies. With our current economic situation, there will be more attention to growing food in an efficient and sustainable manner, and that means moving away from animal farming and toward plant-based agriculture.

Photo credit: Farm Sanctuary

Gene Baur is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Across the U.S., millions of pigs and other animals too sick to stand (commonly referred to as "downed animals") suffer terribly at farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses. They are left for hours or days without receiving proper veterinary care, and they are often dragged with chains or pushed with forklifts. Farm Sanctuary has worked to document and end the abuses of downed animals since 1986, and we’re making progress. Last year, the Obama administration tightened up federal regulations to prevent downed cattle from being slaughtered and used for human food. But, this policy needs to be expanded and applied to pigs and other animals who continue to suffer unnecessarily.