Animal Cruelty and Idaho Agriculture
Feedlot near Grandview, Idaho Photo by Guy Hand
Idaho lawmakers are feeling pressure to update Idaho laws concerning animal cruelty in agriculture.
According to the ag. weekly Capital Press, the California-based Animal Legal Defense Fund last year named Idaho “one of the worst states in the nation with regard to animal cruelty laws.”
Fueled by films like “Food, Inc.” and Jonathan Safran Foer’s recent book “Eating Animals,” the general public is becoming increasing concerned over factory farming and allegations of animal cruelty. That’s why Idaho Republican Senator Tim Corder is urging Idaho’s agricultural industry to prepare for animal rights groups to begin coming to Idaho seeking changes in animal welfare laws.
At the Idaho Cattle Association Convention in Sun Valley Tuesday, Nov. 17, Corder said agriculture better be ready. ”The only way to do that” he said “is to strengthen existing law and add new laws to protect livestock production.”
It’s unclear from the article if Corder’s plan includes increasing protections for livestock as well as for the livestock industry.
At the meeting, Corder suggested separating livestock production issues from companion animal issues, with domestic animal welfare under control of law enforcement and livestock welfare under control of the Idaho Department of Agriculture. He said other livestock industries in states like California may be crippled by recent legislation enacted to improve living conditions for farm animals by providing, for example, “animals with space to turn around and fully stretch their limbs.”
“Agriculture, of that scale in California, could not mount a campaign that even came close (to rejecting the law). That’s embarrassing,” Corder said. “I want Idaho to be ready, on the offensive. We’re just not there yet, but we need to be.”
The Capital Press article also quoted Senator Corder as saying “a new chicken facility near Burley, which reportedly could produce 3 million eggs, will quickly bring animal activists to Idaho. Because it’s a layer facility, the operation will be killing 400,000 male chicks a month.”
“Wait till the public hears that,” Corder said. “Idaho isn’t ready.”
Feedlot near Grandview, Idaho Photo by Guy Hand
i’m researching factory farming and the unfair abuse and horrible living conditions of the animals in such farms for my senior project right now. reading through the many sights i have found and reading this short article honestly just breaks my heart. it’s completely unjust to be so cruel to living creatures. if we’re breeding them to just kill them any who, shouldn’t we give them a good life for the few short moments that they’re alive. if we have laws [for humans] to protect our rights, such as it’s illegal to be injected with something you don’t want, why don’t these animals have the same rights. the breathe and walk and eat just like us. they have blood coursing through their viens just like us. they have brains that function just like us. the only difference between us is that we are able to communicate our thoughts, emotions, and pain. these animals aren’t able to stick up for themselves and we need to do something about it. i do live in idaho and i do think we need to revise our animal cruelty laws, we need to treat the animals better, give them better living conditions and better diets. we need to get rid of the forced impregnation and the forced injections to unnaturally give growth to the animals. eventually whatever you put into the animals will affect us to. i don’t want to be eating meat with artificial hormones, that can’t be healthy for us either. as one lady by the name of rachel carson once said, “until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is-whether the victim is human or animal- we cannot expect things to be much better in this world…we cannot of peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature”. we need to show an example as a united nation that we can treat everyone and everything with equal respect and we can start by giving factory farm animals the true rights that they deserve.