It's taken me a little longer than expected to get my thoughts together on the second part of the factory farm topic I started last week... but here it is.
First, I have a disclaimer: I don't condone animal abuse in any form, least of all to dairy cows. It is not my intent to sugar coat how we manage cows, and please do not take my arguments as defense of mistreatment of animals. If you need reason to support that claim, review my first couple posts to learn how my involvement in the dairy industry began. (SparkNotes version: 7 year old kid visits a farm and gets irrevocably hooked on big brown cows. 11 years of 4-H, a degree in dairy science, a small farm and several states later, I still own and show cows and now generate my livelihood from the dairy industry.) And I still <3 cows.
So... to the topic of the “ag-gag” bill passed in Iowa and up for referendum in several other states: I have very mixed emotions.
On one hand, as manager of the calf raising part of the large dairy here, I recognize that I can’t see what my employees are doing at all times. I train them to care for and work with the calves, I monitor how they perform, communicate when I see room for improvement, and retrain as needed- I have faith that my employees are handling calves as I (cow lover) would. However, I’m not watching them 24/7, and it would be beyond upsetting to find out my trusted employees were mistreating calves (I have faith this isn’t the case) via a youtube video.
Further, it’s no secret that undercover animal rights vegan activists will bate employees into poor behavior and gather months of footage to have enough for a few minutes of incriminating video. It doesn’t excuse mistreatment, but recognize that what you’re watching has been carefully crafted to elicit an emotional response that will lead you to send them money and cut meat and milk from your diet.
With that in mind, I think it’s fair for animal farmers to seek protection from malicious activists with a vegan agenda and the intent of destroying our ability to earn a living feeding a hungry world population.
On the other hand, we are living in a society that demands transparency. I feel confident inviting strangers to my farm at home, and my employers regularly host farm tours for neighbors, politicians and local school groups. Its remarkable how many people have left after visiting this “factory farm” (please read part 1) feeling really good about how the animals are handled and where their milk comes from! So slamming the door shut on undercover footage sends out the message we might have something to hide. The dairy industry has a responsibility to regulate itself, and we do- look up the FARM program sometime (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management).
So, should we allow vegan activists access to our farms, knowing they are there solely to target us as cruel and unnecessary regardless of how well run the farm? C'mon people, we’re not dealing with a rogue vegan here- HSUS, Farm Sanctuary and the like are smart, organized businesses with deep pockets and a lot of research on what images and words will best get under your skin.
I can guess what you’re thinking… cruelty is cruelty and the videos find it.
This point is my final piece to this issue and the one I find most troubling.Since less than 1% of the population works on a farm, most people have no basis for understanding what goes on at one (same could be said for my knowledge of a restaurant or bank). Note, owning pets doesn’t count- cats and dogs are friends, not food. Back when more Americans had a personal connection to farms raising animals, farms were much smaller and more numerous. In the past 50 years or so, milk markets have been volitile, rural people have moved to cities and dairy farmers have learned a lot about how to better care for our cows- its simplifying things, but essentially a few big, enclosed barns went up, a lot of little red barns came down. A lot has changed that makes dairy farming look different than it used to be. This opens the door to interpretation of our new dairy farming methods- by hidden camera wearing activists who don’t think we have the right to raise animals to feed people.
For example, artificial insemination (AI), is the primary practice used to get cows pregnant in the US and Europe. It keeps our employees and cows safer than having several full grown bulls running around (think roughly the weight of a Prius and as unpredictable as having a 16 year old driving said Prius). It also allows us to pass only the best genetic traits along to each generation, and reduce genetic disorders. AI technology has been around since the 1970’s and technicians (yes, it’s actually a full time job for a lot of people) undergo specialized training and refresher courses to learn how to carefully get cows pregnant using AI. I (cow lover) see this as a good thing, and yet, what is targeted on the latest animal rights vegan activist undercover video… AI (of course?!?). And I’ll bet a lot of people watching the vegan agenda video thought, wow, poor cows. Would they would still think so after hearing why we use AI? I guess I don’t know. But I do know it’s a practice that I use on my own cows (yes, I took a class to learn how, and yes we wear long gloves) and they don’t seem to have held it against me over the last 10 years, nor are they any less healthy than if I turned them out to rendezvous with a bull.
Does this mean every aspect of good cattle management could be made to look cruel? It sure is easier for an animal rights vegan activist to tell you it’s bad and wrong when you don’t know about why I might use it for my cows…. which means dairy farmers have a lot of work to do and you really should find a farm to go visit.
here is a link to more than you ever wanted to know about artificial insemination for cattle
and here is a link to information on other things we do to take care of our cows
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