National Geographic: Ag Gag Laws - South Dakota Farm Wife

I have always been a fan of National Geographic.

When I was a kid my great grandmother used to buy my sister and I a subscription to the magazine and I loved to look through and look at the beautiful photos about all the places I had never been. The maps being my favorite!

Now, I fully admit to rarely watching the National Geographic channel. And those magazine subscriptions are long gone now.

But, last week I got word about an episode that was going to be airing that was going to be taking a direct look into animal cruelty in the Ag industry.

You can bet I set my DVR to record.

Now, personally, there was a lot I saw that I disagreed with. It was also really sad to me that some of these incidents are happening.

That doesn’t happen around here I can promise you that. And I am pretty positive that most of the farmers I know would never allow some of the cruelty that was seen on the video.

However, there were some practices that were shown that are acceptable in the industry. That were kind of misconstrued, in my opinion- such as castration and tail docking.

Most of the video was geared towards the Dairy and Pork industry. So, I enlisted the help of a friend of mine Peggy Greenway, a pork farmer, that I consider my expert.

Here is her response to what you may or may not have seen on the episode:

Recently National Geographic aired some stories about animal agriculture and I have to say the segments were not very comfortable for this hog farmer to watch. I could talk about each individual issue they brought up but let me tell you a bit about myself first. As a farmer, I spend long hours trying to make sure my pigs are comfortable, healthy, and have a constant supply of feed and water available to them. Animal care is my first priority because it’s my moral obligation and of course I know that healthy, comfortable animals make sense from an economic standpoint also. Yes, my husband and I are in this business to make money, but we wouldn’t be working this hard if we didn’t love animals. All the farmers I know have the same work ethic and are devoted to providing top notch animal care. For this reason, we are all appalled when we see animal abuse. All pig farmers have to be PQA+ (Pork Quality Assurance www.pork.org/Certification/11/pqaPlus.aspx)

certified in order to sell our animals to packers and 99.9% following the guidelines for animal care in order to provide quality, nutritious, and safe pork for consumers.

For every minute of animal abuse video available on youtube you would be able to see thousands of hours of comfortable, well-cared for animals IF we farmers would share those with the public but that footage would be boring. However, farmers have gotten better about sharing information and trying to be more transparent. Common pig-care practices such as castration and tail docking are uncomfortable to talk about with consumers but we are willing to share the process, see here: http://video.pork.org/video/CastrationandTailDockingofPiglets#.UgZyYStncUs.email

Male pigs are castrated for two reasons. One is that male animals get more aggressive as they get older and they also have an off-odor in the meat when they are processed. Male piglets are castrated within the first 3 days following birth when it is has a minimal affect on them. It is a quick process, taking about 10-15 seconds. I’m amazed at how quickly they go back to nursing and how quickly the tiny wound heals. The pigs’ tails are clipped at the same time to prevent their pen-mates from chewing on them as they get older, which can be a problem for the pig’s health.

Euthanasia is also a difficult subject to talk about, but one that every livestock farmer has to deal with at one time or another. If a sick or injured animal does not respond to treatment, it is our moral obligation to end that animal’s suffering. There are different veterinarian approved euthanasia techniques for different animals, depending on the size of the animal. You can see Dr. Tom Burkgren, DVM discuss euthanasia for small pigs here: http://video.pork.org/video/A-Good-End-For-Pigs#.UgVDCvpAMt0.email

One of the other issues brought up by National Geographic was so-called Ag-gag laws. There are some states that have passed legislation regarding the reporting of animal abuse, but the laws are not to “gag” anyone but rather to require the immediate reporting of any animal abuse. The laws prohibit anyone from taking and accumulating video over a long period of time as most animal rights groups do in order to piece together sensationalized video. The term they use is to confuse the public into thinking that farmers don’t want anyone to report abuse. The real reason for the legislation is to report the actions immediately and is the premise for the “See It, Stop It” campaign: http://www.seeitstopit.org/ Anyone who is truly concerned for animal care would support the legislation and this campaign.

If you have any questions, please check out the following references:

www.video.pork.org

www.bestfoodfacts.org

www.pork.org

Peggy Greenway

I definitely think she hit the nail on the head with this line:

“For every minute of animal abuse video available on youtube you would be able to see thousands of hours of comfortable, well-cared for animals…”

If you have questions about safe animal handling and practices on any farm please contact me and if I can’t answer your question, I would love to find you someone that can!

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