Now the Animals Rights folks at HSUS are taking cues from their old friends at PETA.

On April 13th and 14th in Fort Wayne Indiana the Indiana Milk Professionals held their annual Indiana Milk Quality Conference. Mike Baumgarner from Ohio Farm Bureau was a featured speaker. We would like to quote Mike from his talk.

"Agriculture makes up less than 2 percent of the population," Mike Bumgarner, a vice president with Ohio Farm Bureau, told conference attendees. "You’ve got people who don’t really understand production agriculture."

But the good news?

"Most consumers trust farmers," he said.

Bumgarner said people are influenced in their attitudes toward animals rights by several factors, which include culture, economics, religious and philosophical beliefs, scientific knowledge and aesthetics.

In addition, he said that dollar figures trump animals rights. For example, there is a cost associated with an animal being able to spread its wings or limbs and not be confined for life.

Many of the attitudes prevalent in the animals rights movement, Bumgarner said, are rooted in the ways Americans treat their pets.

"We love our pets!" he said, but there can be trouble when Americans equate pets with farm animals.

People think that "A dog is a cow and a cat is a pig," he said."

"As producers, we have taken care of animals for generations," he said. "But we don’t get this word out."

Bumgarner urged farmers to go home and watch "Food, Inc.," a movie that portrays what its producers see as problems with modern agriculture. Many farmers feel vilified by the movie.

"Farming is being blamed for every problem known to mankind," he said.

Bumgarner concluded his presentation by claiming that the Humane Society of the United States, a prominent animals rights group, uses the tactic of dividing and conquering to influence policy. Hence, he told agriculture that it has to present a united front against such groups. He credits unity as a key factor in Ohio not giving in to HSUS.

We also would like to quote Wes Jamison, a public relations consultant and professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Wes spoke at the Indiana Milk Quality Conference as well.
Please pay careful attention to what he had to say.

"You produce for a consuming society that cannot and will not understand what you say," he told farmers. "People don’t care about the farmers’ story."

Jamison said that HSUS "chooses language that consumers will resonate with," and that it utilizes a strategy of "moral coalition building."

"It has nothing to do with science and economics," said Jamison. "The idea is to moralize the issues."

Jamison said that HSUS has a theologian on its staff, and it uses the appeal of religion to get its word out.

"It urges pastors to preach against animal agriculture," he said.

He even showed a videoclip of Houston megachurch pastor and televangelist Joel Osteen urging his parishioners and viewers not to eat pork, as it is "unclean."

Jamison outlined the core messages that HSUS uses, which include the individual worth of the animal, animal suffering, compassion, guilt and responsibility.

He told his audience that in actuality, animals are a source of protein. In other countries, people eat dog, and the reason why this is not done in the United States is due to cultural norms.

"There are different rules for pets and livestock," Jamison said. "Hypocrisy is approved."

Wes is a great guy but please know that he is facing lawsuits brought by HSUS the factory fundraisers of the Animals Rights groups.

You will notice an almost, I repeat almost defeated attitude by Wes. HSUS will not give up.

We want to quote Gary Haynes from the Indiana Board of Animal Health as well. Gary said:

"Indiana lawmakers have addressed the animal rights issue in recent years.

The Indiana General Assembly passed House Bill 1468 in 2009, which addresses cruelty of domestic animals. In 2010, the General Assembly passed House Bill 1099, which adopted rules for taking care of livestock and poultry."

Haynes warned that HSUS may try to circumvent such state laws, and appeal their case at the federal level with the knowledge that federal laws will trump state laws.

Be proud of what your Indiana Legislators have done the last two years but be very aware and very vigilant about the fact that this battle for our very existence is not over. Please stay in contact with all of YOUR legislators and let them know where YOU stand on these issues. If you don’t, you and all of the members of the Indiana Council for Animal Welfare may not be able to eat those great Pork Tenderloins and Rib Eyes that we all so dearly love. No eggs, no milk or cheese, no fried chicken from your favorite Indiana restaurant.

We don’t know about you but we would miss that very much.
 

 

 

ICAW wondered how long it would take to start seeing the fingerprints of Cass Sunstein on regulations or documents from any of the agencies under the OIRA! Please remember Mr. Sunstein is a huge Animals Rights fellow. Cass Sunstein… is an ‘animals rights’ attorney who acts on behalf of animals. “Are you an animal with a ‘beef’ against humans? You have the right to sue…” published in prevarication.net. If you don’t believe that, please read a paper published in the Social Science Research Network by Mr. Sunstein titled "The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer".

  You probably are wondering at this point why we bring all of this up. We were reading an article in Greenversations (The Official Blog Of The U.S Evironmental Protection Agency) "Living Without Meat" About the author: Nicole Reising is an intern at the Office of Children’s Health Protection. She is a sophomore studying non-profit management at Indiana University. Wow, a sophmore in one of our great Indiana colleges is officially writing on a U.S government blog about why we should not eat meat.

We truly wonder how this could have ever come about? Is the EPA now going to jump in the whole Factory Farming issue? We wonder if Ms. Reising ever gave thought to all of the farmers she potentially wants to put out of business? The real question is, "Would this type of article ever been published prior to Mr. Sunsteins tenure?" The editor of the blog does qualify that the opinions expressed on the blog are those of the authors.

But once again think about it, would this have been possible prior to Mr. Sunstein? We know that we here at the Indiana Council for Animal Welfare don’t like to see our tax money spent this way! What do you think about it?

Well we are sure that our favorite Animals Rights factory fundraising group H$u$ is not going to be happy. On April 9th 2010 the McDonalds Board of Directors has recommended that shareholders vote "NO" against a proposal to require that 5 percent of the eggs purchased for the chain’s restaurants in the United States be the cage-free variety.Last year McDonald’s joined the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply, which is organizing a commercial-scale study led by Michigan State University and the University of California, Davis, to examine different housing options for egg-laying hens.

We are sure that our friends at Rose Acre Farms were glad to hear this news. We at ICAW believe the wisest thing anyone has done recently is to put their foot down and say "Let the Scientists tell us what to do." Those on the Animals Rights front have to be quite upset about this latest turn of events.

By the way read the home page of Rose Acre Farms website and you will see an article about them donating over "ONE MILLION" eggs to churches and foodbanks. Who on the other side of the fence is caring so well. So the next time you say to Rose Acre Farms Stop Cruelty to Animals please make sure and tell H$U$ to stop the cruelty to humans!!

Well we are into our 4th month of HB1468 being the law of the land in Indiana. As of April 7th, 2010 there are over 80 Commercial Dog Breeders and 2 Commercial Dog Brokers registered with the Indiana Board of Animal Health (BOAH). During the heat of the battle in 2009 over HB1468 many numbers were thrown around about how many Indiana Puppy Breeders there actually are in the state, on the low side that number was less than 100 Commercial Dog Breeders and on the high side 3000. We always knew that 3000 Commercial Dog Breeders was ludicrous. Take a moment and think about it, 33 Commercial Dog Breeders per county. This would mean there is at least one Commercial Dog Breeder on every corner in some counties.

With that being said, ICAW would like to know who (if any) has not registered with the state of Indiana as Commercial Dog Breeders or Commercial Dog Brokers. We know that there are more breeders and brokers out there and want to get them registered or find out why they are not. So if you know of any Indiana Dog Breeders that should be classified as Commercial Dog Breeders or someone that should be classified as a Commercial Dog Broker. Please let us know at info@icaw.org.

When we get the opportunity to talk to the Animals Rights folks we have always told them that we want to Stop Cruelty to Animals as much as they profess to. We are going to action as we promised to find the bad actors, so please help us to Find Dog Breeders or Dog Brokers that are not following the law.

The Indiana Council for Animal Welfare was created to protect our human rights but we absolutely will stand up to "ANYONE" about making sure that "THEY" follow their human responsibility to be forthright and legal.

Well Mr. Pacelle’s at it again! H$U$ the United States largest Factory Fundraiser (they want to call it Factory Farming so let’s call them how we see it) just can not seem to grasp the idea that they are not in control. H$U$ called a meeting at the downtown Marriott in Des Moine, Iowa Wednesday April 7,2010 to start their march towards trying to get the Iowa legislature to embrace a Prop. 2 style of bill for Iowans. Wayne is well on his way to running all of the farmers out of California, now he and his cronies at H$U$ want to do it in Iowa.

One of the most interesting aspects of this meeting was it was a closed door "Expose" on the poultry business in Iowa. How can you have a meeting of this magnitude and lock out all of the journalists? You can read the news article for yourself to validate the last point. Evidently Mr. Pacelle just can’t stand it when someone just might have something to say back to him when he does his sneak attacks.

Iowa is our countries largest egg laying state which produces approximately 1.25 Billion eggs a month. Interesting number that 1.25 Billion, if the United States would of needed to inoculate our whole population with the H1N1 vaccine Iowa could have been able to produce the necessary amount of eggs to get the vaccine in "One Month" (approximately 3 eggs per vaccine).  Mr. Pacelle always tells us how much he is worried about the animals but it doesn’t seem he is to worried about us.

In the second half of the title of this article it says "and aren’t we glad". Why we are so glad is the fact that our friends from Rose Acre Farms in Seymour, Indiana who own some of the farms in question were there to try and rebutt Mr. Pacelle’s allegations, but were not even allowed in the door. We have come to know the folks at Rose Acre Farms and know them to be upstanding, forthright Hoosiers. Maybe Mr. Pacelle did not want to let them in because Indiana has already helped to put a stop to this foolishness about supposed Factory Farming when the Indiana legislature overwhelmingly passed into law this year HB1099 the Standards for Livestock and Poultry Care act.

Mr. Pacelle says he wants to Stop Cruelty to Animals in regards to poultry, yet he doesn’t seem to want to read anything about the results of cage-free egg laying. When are these animals rights folks at the factory fund raising H$US going to be honest with our country and just come out and tell us that they want us all to be vegans whether "We" want to or not. Hopefully the executives of Rose Acre Farms get the opportunity to talk to Mr. Pacelle face to face. Here at the Indiana Council for Animal Welfare we certainly hope so. Yet, it won’t surprise us if it doesn’t happen because Mr. Pacelle just might walk away with a little "EGG" on his face.

We received a letter today from Frank Losey. Mr. Losey writes about another way to get the Animals Rights folks attention. All across our great country there are so many unbelievable ordinances, laws being created that are just flat out unconstitutional. All Indiana Dog Breeders anyone who truly wants to Stop Cruelty to Animals will pay heed to Mr. Loseys advice. So please go and Find Dog Breeders to show this post to.