Judul : Center For Animal Health And Welfare
link : Center For Animal Health And Welfare
Center For Animal Health And Welfare
thank you laurie, and thank youdiane for inviting me, and thank you all organizersfor including the impact on animals when we're talking aboutfood and agriculture. as laurie mentioned,i feel very privileged to serve the humane societyof the united states.
Center For Animal Health And Welfare, this is our logo, and you can see it consistsof 19 different animals in the shape of the country. we work on all animal issues,and we work on a national scale;
not just conducting rescue,which is so important but inevitably deals withthe symptoms of the problems, but looking to prevent cruelty, and looking at the broadest,biggest issues of our human relationship with animals. one of the central questionsthat we confront at the humane society of the united states is the incredible moment of contradiction that we live in now, in our society.
with so many expressions of loveand appreciation for animals, but so much cruelty occurringon a vast and industrial scale. you know, i did write a bookcalled 'the bond,' and the thesis of this is there'sa bond built into every one of us that gives us a headstart in doingthe right thing for our fellow creatures. all kids have thisconnectivity to animals, and all of us here, at some level,have a connection to other creatures. we have so many expressions of this bond and appreciationfor animals in our society.
two thirds of american householdshave dogs and cats, 171 million dogs and cats; we let our cats on our kitchen tables,we sleep in the same bed as our dogs. there are another 140-150 millionpets in our households, there are more pets than peoplein american households. we spend more than $50 billiona year on our pets. another 80 million of usare active wildlife watchers. we take to the forests and the fields to watch the incredible feats of flightsof birds and other creatures,
and take in the tonicof being in the natural world and experiencing an area that's notcompletely controlled by humans. these ideas are embedded in our culture. there are 20,000 animal welfaregroups in the country. there's an animal groupfor every kind of animal; there are groups that work onchihuahua rescue, st. bernard rescue work,feral cats, or you name it, there are rabbit rescue groups. we run a rabbit sanctuaryfor homeless and injured rabbits,
we say we're providing hope for the "hopless." (laughter) there's an animal groupfor every kind of creature, of course there are farm animal groups and there are groups that are thinkingabout every sort of creature in crisis. and we have a nationwhere the basic notion that cruelty to animals is wrongis already a universal value. all 50 states have anti-cruelty statutes that codify the notionthat malicious torment of animals
is not just a moral problem,it is a legal problem. it is a felony in 47 states. cockfighting is a federal felony, and it's now illegal in all 50 states. dog fighting is a felony in every state, so staging fights between animals, even if you havesome sort of interest in that, get some sort of titillation from it, we as a state, as a nation, say no,you're not allowed to do that,
we're going to protect the animalsfrom that sort of vice and that sort of entertainment. but what about farm animals? the largest category of animalsin use, in our society. ten billion animals raised for foodin the united states every year. ten billion. more animals go throughslaughterhouse lines every year in the united states than there are people on the planet.
just as a logistical enterpriseit's an extraordinary sort of thing. and how do we feel about this? i mean we love our dogs and our cats, and we express all sorts of appreciation,fascination for wildlife, but do we care about farm animals? well, all of the surveysshow that indeed we do. here's a survey fromthe american farm bureau federation, kind of the symbolof industrial agriculture, through oklahoma state university,
measuring public attitudestowards farm animals: 95% of people believe farm animalsshould be well cared for, 95%. every survey shows this. that we care about all animals,including animals raised for food. we at the humane society of usdon't talk so much about animal rights; we talk about human responsibility. it's really more about usthan it is about them. i mean, we need to understanda basic framework when we're talking about animals;
that they think, that they feel,that they make choices, that they want to livejust as much as we want to live, that they want to avoid pain and sufferingjust as much as each one of us does. but it's really about our choices, because in the relationship between usand animals we hold all the cards. we have all the power. we're the lords of the animals. we make life and deathdecisions in our society without even casually thinkingabout it sometimes.
the little actions that we take havesuch consequences for these creatures. and one of the greatest disconnectsthat exist in our society is our relationship with animals, and what we think we believe,and how we act in this world, where animals are not just a sidelineto the human experience, whether we realize it or not, they're at the centerof the human experience and they've always been at the centerof the human experience. are we syncing up our valuesand our beliefs with our conduct?
this is a barren battery cage; 280 million laying hensin the united states and 95% of them arein these barren battery cages; six or eight birds jammed into a cage. each bird under the industry standardhas 67 square inches of space, now this is an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper, 8.5 times 11 is 93, so 67 is two thirds of this page. that's the living spacethat a laying hen has as the industry standardand norm in our nation
for the year and a half that she is alive. a year and a half in this space? i mean, it's as if eight or nine of uswere in an elevator for our whole lives. imagine after five or ten minuteshow you'd feel stuck in an elevator, imagine if you were stuck in therefor a whole day or a week, or a month or a year,or a year and a half. i mean are we this uncreativewhen it comes to agricultural practices? are we this miserly? are we this obliviousto the needs of other creatures
to do this sort of thing to them? confine them in a space where they can'teven turn around or extend their limbs, is that the way we are? is that the kind of country we are? is that the kind of people we are? or take pigs. this is smithfield foods,it's one of their farms, we did an undercover investigation there. these are pigs in gestation crates,the breeding sows,
the females have it worstin the general sense. these sows arein a two foot by seven foot cage, they can take one step forwardand one step back, they can't turn around. the only time they get out of that cage is just before they give birth and they are moved into another cagewhere they are similarly immobilized, and then after a short timewith their piglets, then they're re-impregnatedand put back into the gestation crates.
seven, eight, nine,ten successive pregnancies, three years, threeand a half years in a cage. now these are intelligent,sociable animals. is this what we should be doing to them? if we did this to a dog? you could be prosecutedunder one of those anti-cruelty statutes. so how do we narrow the gap? how do we address these problemsof ten billion animals, so many of them caught upin this industrial food production system
where the animals are no longer animals, they've been turned into meat,milk, and egg producing machines. they've been genetically manipulatedto exaggerate certain body parts. they've been moved from outdoor settings, where they could feelsunlight on their backs, soil beneath their feet,where they can amble around, where they can interactwith others of their kind and they can have a decent life. yes, they're going to have at leastone bad day when they go to slaughter,
but the rest of their life, the rest of their life does not needto be one of misery and privation. of course, the answer ishuman creativity and innovation, which has solved so many things,and made moot so many past problems through the advance ofentrepreneurial activity and imagination. this is an aviary systemwhere these laying hens can actually, to some degree,they can act like laying hens. they can perch, get up on a high place, they can go to a nest boxand lay their egg,
they can move around,i mean, what a radical notion, that animals built to moveshould be allowed to move. or pigs, you know fred talked about this, these animals want to be around others, they live in a herd environment,but there are limits to the herd, you don't press themtogether side by side, so the ammonia overtakes the atmosphere,that they're living above manure, that falls betweenthe slatted concrete floors. they should be able to feelsome grass or hay beneath their feet.
the science is clear on these issues, i mean our common senseleads us in the right direction. this is a netherlands study about a variety of differentegg-laying hen production systems. you can see that the cage system,the barren battery cage, on a scale of 0 to 10,doesn't come in at 7, or 8, something that's a little deficient,it comes in at zero. zero. the barn system, again,not free range, comes in at 5.8,
and the aviary system,the one that you saw, at 5.9. these incremental improvements, little decisions for us that areentirely inconsequential in our lives, mean everything for these animals,everything for them. temple grandin, there wasa movie about her on hbo - here's clare danes as temple grandin - says: "i feel very stronglythat we've got to treat animals right, and that gestation stalls have got to go." the pew commission onindustrialized farm animal production
took a look at all of these issuesthat we've been talking about today, and they looked at the issueof the overuse of antibiotics and the manure management systems,the effect on rural communities, and they looked also at animal welfare. a commission which consistedof a wide variety of stakeholders, including a former us da secretary,a former governor of a midwest state, "the commission recommends the phase-outof all intensive confinement systems that restrict natural movementand normal behaviors, including battery cagesand gestation crates."
we've got to have these principlesof anti-cruelty, the words humane, they're not abstractions, they're things that needto be put to work in our daily lives. and we have no better opportunityto put them to work in our daily lives than with the food choicesthat confront us every single day. we've got to eat with conscience,wherever we are in the spectrum, whether we're a vegan or vegetarianor an inveterate carnivore. we can all make choices that havebetter consequences for animals. and we've got to changethe legal framework.
eight states have recently adopted laws that are urging to banconfinement crates or cages. prop2 in california, which was a measure to stopthe extreme confinement of laying hens, and breeding sows, and veal calves, got more votes in a contested election than any citizen initiativein american history. people voted for farm animals, even though they were toldit would cost them more,
that there would be all sortsof problems and complications. people don't wantthe animals treated this way. even the united egg producers,the group that was our biggest adversary, has now seen the writing on the wall. it is now jointly supportingwith hsus in efforts in congress to have a minimum standardof care for laying hens, to ban forced molting,to reduce ammonia levels, to require labeling of all eggsin the marketplace, to double the space allowed for the birdsand to give them enrichments.
and of course, all of us,as individuals, can take action. meatless mondays is a great,easy way to ease into this. choosing higher welfare products which are now more and moreavailable in the marketplace, we've got to demandthat they're more widely available. and urging corporations. we're a capitalist economy; corporations have an enormoussway on our behavior, the opportunities that we have.
all of these companieshave taken preliminary steps to infuse their supply chainwith more humanely produced products. and we've got to spread the word. it's said that not a sparrow fallswithout his maker knowing. we've got to be mindfulof all these creatures, every single one of them. thank you. (applause)
Demikianlah Artikel Center For Animal Health And Welfare
Anda sekarang membaca artikel Center For Animal Health And Welfare dengan alamat link https://yanderatjen.blogspot.com/2017/05/center-for-animal-health-and-welfare.html
0 Response to "Center For Animal Health And Welfare"
Posting Komentar