where does the loathing come from?????

[Jilara]

Oddly, I was appalled to see where this guy purports to be from, i.e. San Luis Obispo County, where I grew up. My first thought also was: "He's not from SLO County."

Why do I say that? Well, beyond the fact that I knew where all the chicken farms were, and they sure didn't use battery farming (okay, maybe there could have been some tucked away in the outer ranges of the Nipomo Mesa or something, but I was familiar with the main ones) because you could *see* the chickens ranging. Even the friers were kept in large outdoor pens.

But SLO County was the great bastion of farming the old way, where people let their chickens free-range, or kept them with large enclosed coops and runs, to protect them from predators. I know this because I KNEW these people. People ranched cattle on large tracts of land, and central coast cattle might not have been those fat feedlot cows (whose meat makes me sick), but they were mighty tasty. (There are still a lot of old-style ranchers in the county.) And when I go back, I still run into things like folks who have small goat farms, or keep chickens.

I also remember the extremely hostile reaction Earl Butz (Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture) got when he lectured at Cal Poly (my alma mater, sometimes jokingly called "Cow Poly" for its extensive agriculture programs) and told them that family farms were a thing of the past, and factory farms were the wave of the future, so get with the program. Not what he expected from an Ag. college!

I think this guy is going to get a similar reaction from the real SLO folks. By this, I mean the people who belong there, not the retirees and wealthy who build white palaces down along the shoreline by Pismo Beach and seem to want to turn the area into the next incarnation of Newport Beach. Though I was recently talking about a friend whose father ranched and kept poultry outside Arroyo Grande, and wondered if the house-farmers had outlawed these activities yet, since it was in an area being flooded with developments.

 

[AngieChick]

There are many protein sources that don't come from animals, so the argument that treating animals inhumanely is somehow necessary "for the common good" is patently untrue. If large agribusiness had to change their practices it may make their eggs/pork/veal more expensive, but that could be a real boon for the smaller farmers that already adhere to humane practices. It would level the playing field. People may have to eat more beans, etc., and cut down a bit on their meat consumption because of economics, but that certainly isn't going to do any real harm to anyone. We are a spoiled nation. Most countries don't eat as much meat as we do, and in the old days we Americans didn't eat as much as we do now. I don't see anything wrong with animals being raised for meat or other products, but I do see much wrong with tormenting it while we do it. You can judge a community's humanity by how they treat their animals. I would hope for more from ours.

That guy either has some serious issues or he's trying to paint the opposition of that bill as completely without compassion. Either way it was extremely inflammatory.

 

[dlhunicorn]

Most commercial systems (even the "humane" ones like we have in some countries in europe which regulate (extensively) the living conditions within closed caged systems) would be abhorrent to those of us who love our chickens as pets (those of you who know me know what I am saying here) ... however I do understand the arguments of the cost involved and the polarity of wanting affordable food plus the fact that many of the modern commercial breeds are not suitable to free range conditions. There is a middle ground to be found and it is a pity that this proposal hasn't addressed that middle ground but has instead gone to the extreme.
ETA: I am not allowed to comment on the author of that article > *insert tape over mouth smiley here*

 

[Oblio13]

Quote:
What he said.

Americans seem to want to make everything illegal, and then to selectively prosecute. I have a fundamental problem with this "government by litigation".

We don't need more regulations or more bureaucrats to enforce them.

Voters shouldn't decide how farmers farm, or how pilots fly or plumbers plumb. Most of their votes are based on emotional ignorance.

Don't like hens in battery cages? Vote with your dollars and don't buy them. Wait, I just had an idea - get a few hens yourself and raise them any way you see fit!

If I lived in California, I'd vote "no".

 

[antlers]

Quote:
What he said.

Americans seem to want to make everything illegal, and then to selectively prosecute. I have a fundamental problem with this "government by litigation".

We don't need more regulations or more bureaucrats to enforce them.

Voters shouldn't decide how farmers farm, or how pilots fly or plumbers plumb. Most of their votes are based on emotional ignorance.

Don't like hens in battery cages? Vote with your dollars and don't buy them. Wait, I just had an idea - get a few hens yourself and raise them any way you see fit!

If I lived in California, I'd vote "no".

Amen !! This country was founded because of religious intolerance in England. We have proceeded to be intolerant of anything we dont like. Dont like chickens in the hood? Get em banned. We do not need laws on this. Vote with your pocket book and let others do likewise.

 

[Anny]

I think the worst line in the whole thing is when he says...

"They’ve been stuffed into small cages for more than a half century."

Like the fact that we have been doing it for so long makes it alright. Just because people do it doesn't make it right!

They had slaves for a long time...but that doesn't mean it's OK to enslave people.

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

i couldn't bear to read the first few sentences.

 

[peapickinchicks]

There are many protein sources that don't come from animals, so the argument that treating animals inhumanely is somehow necessary "for the common good" is patently untrue. If large agribusiness had to change their practices it may make their eggs/pork/veal more expensive, but that could be a real boon for the smaller farmers that already adhere to humane practices. It would level the playing field. People may have to eat more beans, etc., and cut down a bit on their meat consumption because of economics, but that certainly isn't going to do any real harm to anyone. We are a spoiled nation. Most countries don't eat as much meat as we do, and in the old days we Americans didn't eat as much as we do now. I don't see anything wrong with animals being raised for meat or other products, but I do see much wrong with tormenting it while we do it. You can judge a community's humanity by how they treat their animals. I would hope for more from ours.

That guy either has some serious issues or he's trying to paint the opposition of that bill as completely without compassion. Either way it was extremely inflammatory.

. thanks Angiechick I agree.

 

[walkswithdog]

With the production of ethanol helping to drive up the cost of grain products, with the price of gas and what that is doing to the cost of farming and feeds. The last dang thing we need is for eggs to skyrocket.

Like a dozen eggs is the ONLY thing effected? Mayonaise? Baked goods? A thousand thousand things - including dog food, have eggs in them. The price of eggs goes up, so do all those prices.

Legislation only makes everything worse. Choose to buy cage free, or locally produced free range. Vote with your dollars for how you want your eggs.

But so many people, elderly and poor depend on low cost eggs for a significant part of their diet. They also need the prices of the other egg based products to stay as low as possible.

Forcing the caged bird industry out of business and skyrocketing the base cost of more foods now could drive people just barely getting by into real poverty.

Here they are beginning to ask for pet feed donations so poor and seniors on fixed incomes can keep their pets. How much worse would it be if costs for basic foods went up another huge step? Already dogs are being dumped into shelters at higher rates due to the cost of food. Horses being sold or placed because feed has skyrocketed.

Lots of herd owners are slaughtering or selling off huge portions of their stock in sheep and goats.

It's all linked. The base price of just living is getting hard for more and more people. Doing something that shoots us again in the foot just doesn't make sense.

Yes, we need to encourage them to do better. But crashing an industry we depend on is hardly the answer.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I feel sorry for him... his life must be so pitiful.