States Look to Ban Efforts to Reveal Farm Abuse

States Look to Ban Efforts to Reveal Farm Abuse

www.nytimes.com

Undercover videos showing grainy, sometimes shocking images of sick or injured livestock have become a favorite tool of animal rights organizations to expose what they consider illegal or inhumane treatment of animals.

Made by animal rights advocates posing as farm workers, such videos have prompted meat recalls, slaughterhouse closings, criminal convictions of employees and apologies from corporate executives assuring that the offending images are an aberration.

In Iowa, where agriculture is a dominant force both economically and politically, such undercover investigations could soon be

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
westernfarmpress.com

Well this is one way to fix the problems with animal abuse or unsafe food handling practices at factory farms - make it illegal to expose it by undercover video!

Several food recalls have been initiated because of exposure from undercover video.

It isn't just the "cruelty to animals" these infiltrators expose, it's the disgusting and sometimes unwholesome practices that lead to tainted food items being put out in the market that would otherwise never be exposed, such as when the downer cows were being scooped up off a floor with a fork lift and dragged to the slaughterhouse and then sold to you and I like they were healthy livestock.

I guess from now on we'll have to rely on the factory farms to tell us when they do something illegal or unwholesome with our food.

Some past exposures by undercover investigations:
Undercover Investigations: Exposing Animal Abuse

Downer cow being dragged away by forklift:


Undercover Video Shows Abuse Of Sick Cows

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This issue IS a serious problem.

It's killing off industry for one, and for two, it's being used for control.

I personally have witnessed with my own eyes a veterinarian doing background checks on individuals wanting to work with him.

....Come to find out, they're affiliated with PETA and had been charged with something. THEY INFILTRATE. Even if there isn't anything wrong going on, they will MAKE SURE there is. If you look at the PETA "book" (their "leader" wrote) "Pig is to rat, as rat is to boy." so obviously, they want them free. Do you think they'll honestly free them in a way that is kind to the farmer (whom has been caring for them)? So, after helping countless numbers of calves to be born, they get the crappy end of the stick huh? Better to go after bankers, whom have already been after the farmers of America way before PETA ever did..

Breeders, farmers, or ANYTHING affiliated with animals can get you thrown in jail. Half the time, people don't know what they're talking about, but think there is abuse. Without even raising an animal, they want you to believe they know whats best. They don't realize the differance of a milk cow or meat cow. Yet they call animal control every week on the farmers around this area that have dairy cows (ribs are naturally sucked in). Thank god for smart-enough cops. (They laugh at the idiots) then leave with a handshake. They know what's up.

...Raise a litter of puppies? No? Ever raised a calf? No? ...So then, how is it you, or anyone who hasn't can tell me what to do with my livestock? The hipocracy is thick in the air.

I'm a Vet Tech and studing to become a Vet. So atleast, on this particular topic, I do know my ABC's. About damn time they are doing something about this! WOOT!

I appreciate your letting everyone know about this bit of news. I live right near Iowa. It's a big agra (as in Big Agra) state. How corrupt and evil, and typical that the greedy corrupt and evil are trying to hide their corruption and evil. Duh!

High percentages of bacteria found have been found in US meat. Not a suprise! I believe it is due in part to un sanity factory farm practices. Other part of that would be resistance to antibiotics over time, because of the high use of antibiotics.

US Meat and Poultry Is Widely Contaminated With Drug-Resistant Staph Bacteria, Study Finds

Nearly half of the meat and poultry samples -- 47 percent -- were contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria -- 52 percent -- were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to the study published April 15 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Drug-resistant bacteria contaminates 25 pct of US meat

Fri Apr 15, 5:31 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A sampling of grocery store meat in five US cities has shown a type of drug-resistant bacteria is contained in about one quarter of beef, chicken, pork and turkey for sale, a study said Friday.

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that can cause skin infections, pneumonia, sepsis or endocarditis in people with weak hearts, was found in 47 percent of samples, said the study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Yahoo News

I saw a thread here about girls going into puberty outrageously early. I'll bet ya anything it has to do with hormones in food (and also plastics..)

Im not surprised. Now that corporations have our democracy by the balls expect to see in every possible avenue blockages erected to prevent any investigation into anything that might hurt their profits. Its going to be a quick downhill slide for people and animals and the land in the US.

Now that corporations can pump unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, the politicians really dont even have to try to please the people. No one who is not corporate sponsored has a chance of winning unless we the people stop voting for the candidates we see on TV.

And yes, that means Jesse Ventura too. If they are on television, it is ONLY because the corporate owned media knows that candidate is controllable. Ron Paul and his son they cant very well keep totally off, because they are already holding office. But other than that, if you see them on TV they are on strings.

Jesse Venturas show is grooming, so they have a "conspiracy" candidate as more and more Americans wake up to the idea that we are being lied to and manipulated.

Animal rights, human rights, protections of the environment, are on their way out. Believe that. And it breaks my heart because I love animals. And people. Well, most people.

reply to post by simone50m


I bet you are right. Estrogen sensitive cancers are on the rise too because of all the synthetic estrogens we are pumping into the environment via plastics, fertilizers, pesticides, and hormones in animals AND in humans. (We pee them into the water supply)

There are many examples in our post-industrial society of the lop-sided trade-offs we make for the sake of convenience. We surrender our self-sufficiency (and autonomy) by degrees, earning us more free time which is largely misspent on foolish distractions.

To me, the most abhorrent example of this trend is the Factory Farm.

Heinous beyond words, and I have visited one personally; and can attest to the stench, the misery, the filth and the over-crowding. Absent even some degree of empathy for the animals involved, the conditions under which most meat is produced are absolutely revolting.

And shall we touch on mono-culture, petroleum based fertilizers, GMO's, top-soil erosion, and the reckless strain on our water-tables? The very agricultural practices which led to the dustbowl conditions of the 30's in America (and if you drive through certain parts of Texas, Oklaholma, and Kansas, the land is still just one vast barren scab) are being reproduced in Northern China over MILLIONS of acres.

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD. It's easy, if you take advantage of resources such as community gardens, CSA's or even a modest home plot. I spend on average $75 for seed (most of which I am able to save from the previous year) and a plot. I'm not only able to meet my household's veggie needs throughout the growing season, I am able to freeze and preserve over half of the biomass we consume through the winter months. I spend around five hours a week in my plot, and find it very satisfying and enjoyable.

If you can't grow it yourself, buy locally. Conventional food prices have risen to the point that they are nearly commensurate with locally sourced food anyway.

Convenience is rarely worth the high price paid.

This is why I try to resist giving in to piling on another country's practices, like the Japanese whaling. Very recently I gave into kicking at China, in another thread. But all the while, keeping in mind our factory farms. Lest I forget.

reply to post by mistermonculous


Beautifully stated. We should not be so shallow as to over look the animals treatment for convenience or even for price reductions. All Americans eat too much meat. It would be better for us, the environment, and the animals, and local economies, if we only bought locally produced meat where we ourselves could peer pressure farmers into maintaining humane standards.

NOTE: All vegetarian haters out there, I did NOT say we should STOP eating meat. Only that paying more for better quality and eating less of it would benefit everyone.

Because you are right, one obvious way to circumvent this whole issue is to just boycott factory farmed meat. Period. Then they would not have the money to buy regulations that prevent people from exposing their inhumanity.

I didn't watch the video because I wanted to spare myself from anger asociated from this these things. I still remember the seal clubbing incident that made me want to grab that same bat and split the heads of the people doing these monstrous acts.

I will say this tho, Karma is a B&^%h and one day, they will get theirs paid back x10.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


This kind of cover up obviously forced through thanks to lobby groups is not just in the food industry..

IMO more and more we are seeing the end of the whistleblower..

It's a battle of the public versus Government and big business, and we are loosing ground every day..

ya know, it's a shame that people have to actually die
before products will be recalled in the future.

whistleblowers are being hunted like witches
cuz they actually affect the bottom lines of
the stockholders. They must be silenced
at once, else they lose their yr end bonus.
profits over people, that's capitalist greed.

Originally posted by simone50m
I saw a thread here about girls going into puberty outrageously early. I'll bet ya anything it has to do with hormones in food (and also plastics..)

That's only the tip of the ice berg as for the reasons for early puberty....it is from both the added hormones and plastics...but also from the use of soy, among other things.

Monsanto Cash Helped Fund Bill to Stifle Whistleblowers In Iowa

This from a health/food watchdog group;

As if Monsanto isn’t a big enough giant, they constantly throw money to influence serious legislation! Oh, but this isn’t an act of pretentious altruism for farmers. They have a vulnerable hide to cover if they don’t get their way in seeing that Iowa’s anti-whistleblower farm bill passes into law. Similar to other bills in legislation like the Florida farm photos bill, it’s to keep public scrutiny out by threatening the probing “criminal” with lengthy prison time.

So far, the focus has been on animal cruelty and keeping animal activists from recording questionable behavior in Big Ag operations. But these proposed laws keep all prying eyes out, including anyone who might discover Monsanto’s hand in “crop operations,” their seed houses, research areas, and pesticide manufacturing.

What makes this a real Judas-kiss is that Monsanto pretends to act on the behalf of farmers. Monsanto will make sure you don’t go snooping around, but they will continue to trespass on farms to sample plants so they can sue that farmer for patent infringement if they find GM seed. And yes, there will be provisions in Iowa’s bill to allow Monsanto to trespass and carry out their witch hunt. Don’t you dare try to uncover animal cruelty and “seedy” operations, but Monsanto can continue to pose as undercover land mappers and local fellow AA members to trap unsuspecting farmers.

Got pitchforks?

~Health Freedoms

Off topic; another reason for young girls to be experiencing puberty earlier is the amount of pharmaceuticals that find their way into our water supply. Google "urine + pharmaceutical" and you'll see what I mean, with Big Ag you have pharmaceuticals from cattle urine, with the majority of the population on some drug or other you have pharmaceuticals from human urine, all of which eventually finds it's way into our water supply. Water treatment plants don't catch all of it, even in the countryside the runoff from Big Ag taints ground water. It's getting to the point now where the hell do you go for a pure natural environment?

Insidious forces like Big Ag and Monsanto want to pervert our environment or food supplies then make it illegal to report them. Why should they bother to operate in an ethical or safe manner when it's easier to bribe the government to eliminate the whistleblowers?

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Sometimes people make me sick. The people in these states looking to get these methods banned should be beaten and mistreated like the animals in said farms. I'm no huge animal rights activist, but I AM human. (If that even means anything any more.)

And how about instead of wasting money trying to end these videos and actually just make the farms treat their animals with the respect they deserve? Idiots.

Also, a lot of people are turned off by this exposure, thus causing them to abandon the consumption of such meats. It in turn cuts sales and profits one household at a time. I admit, I am one of those people. I read "Fast Food Nation" and saw a vid of how the animals were contained, fed, treated and killed and I understood how these actions affected the meat that is sold. Womb born animals have an intelligent consciousness and when an animal with a consciousness like cows and pigs are terrorized into these conditions and seeing others of their kind euthanized, because of this terror of knowing their demise, they release a chemical into their blood that is toxic to humans. I just don't want to take that chance. Overall, I feel much better, which is an added plus.

STAR AND FLAG!


My philosophy on eating animals is, if you name it, call it and it comes to you; It's family, not food.

usinfo.org...
ah the first amendment when we lose this one were toast because away we go twards no more stories that may offend our corperate bosses we'd be disbandedand id have to learn to talk with flags

If you're sensitive or get sick easily don't watch this . It's a factory slaughter house for Jewish Kosher and Muslim Halal meat . The cattle aren't killed , they aren't even stunned . They have their throats cut and trachea cut out , and then it gets worse . Animal torture in the name of religion . Almost made me sick and i don't get sick easily and it's happening right here on an industrial scale . The government of Belguim is trying to outlaw it but the Jews and Muslims in Belgium have combined forces to fight the government . They both believe it is their religious right to torture animals to death . This is as bad as it gets .


www.mefeedia.com...