06/12/07 Extreme Animal Activism

Extreme Animal Activism. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I like to eat as I'm sure most of us do. Like many of us too, I have struggled with a weight problem up until the last few years. There are days when I will eat mostly fruits and vegetables with little or no meat. Does that make me a vegetarian? No, in fact there are days when I really craze a nice juicy barbequed steak! But there are people who do enjoy a vegan lifestyle. While some do it for health reasons others take it to the extreme. Recently a poultry producer in Pennsylvania was charged with animal cruelty by the vegan activist group, Compassion Over Killing. Philip Lobo is the communications director for the Animal Ag Alliance. LOBO: This group Compassion Over Killing had a young man apply for a job on a farm, he then reportedly took over 2 hours of video in the layer houses at Esbenshade Farms. Some of that video possibly included intentionally posed scenes. He then turned that video over to the vegan activist group, then edited that video down to 20 minutes of the most disturbing footage possibly including some of their stock footage. Due to the lack of proof and expert testimony by the defense the case received a not guilty verdict. But this case does provide a harbinger for the ag industry. LOBO: Just last October at the Strength Of Many conference, which was out on the West coast, Miyun Park who is vice-president of Farm Animal Welfare for The Humane Society of the United States and was a co-founder of Compassion Over Killing, the group that was involved in instigating this case said that her goal  actually that HSUS' goal for the broiler and layer industries is to end them. That means no more fried chicken or scrambled eggs. So where does it stop. LOBO: The they'll just move on to the next target, to swine, to beef, to dairy cattle. So how can ag producers protect themselves from this form of terrorism? LOBO: They first need to adopt the UEP guidelines or other strong, well accepted animal welfare guidelines. Then they need to take a look at their hiring practices and they really need to look at security on their farm also. The Animal Agriculture Alliance has more information on their website at animalagalliance.org. Anybody up for a plate of bacon & eggs? That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.