Animal Initiative Raises Hackles
US - Jim Klinker says the biggest hurdle he and other foes of Proposition 204 have is that many Arizonans have never been on a farm and have no idea about where the food comes from that reaches their tables.
26 October 2006
2 minute read
In fact, the executive secretary of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation said he thinks that people may have completely the wrong image. They may imagine that the animals slaughtered to make bacon or hamburger have lived out their lives frolicking in the grass and wallowing in the mud.
The industry is facing a state initiative that would ban the use of small pens for pregnant pigs. Klinker, whose group opposes the initiative, is trying to educate voters about the nature of industrial agriculture. That means that for many companies, it is a financial decision to keep sows in pens where they can't turn around. He also has to argue that such treatment doesn't harm the animals.
Proposition 204 would make it illegal, beginning in 2013, to house calves raised for veal or pregnant pigs in pens in which they cannot lie down and fully extend their limbs or turn around.
Source: AzCentral
