Humane Society wants bureau help on docking

WILLMAR, Minn. — Will Minnesota become a battleground between the animal agriculture industry and the Humane Society of the United States?

One speaker at a Strategic Animal Agriculture Conference in Willmar, Minn., thinks so. He thinks the state soon will be in the crosshairs of the Humane Society of the United States.

Chad Gregory, senior vice president of United Egg Producers, says a recent overture from the HSUS to meet with the Minnesota Farm Bureau is a pattern that will end in compromises by the state’s animal agriculture industry.

“The fact that they’re coming into Minnesota — you need to be worried,” Gregory says. “Your worst nightmare is ahead of you.”

Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, isn’t sure the sky is falling, but he is willing to stay alert. He acknowledges that HSUS leaders asked to meet with his organization’s staff Dec. 15 at the organization’s Eagan, Minn., headquarters.

HSUS officials asked for the meeting, saying they wants the state Farm Bureau’s help in promoting a bill in the Minnesota Legislature, which would add two words — “and cattle” — to a state law that prohibits docking of animal tails. The majority of dairy cattle have docked tails, presumably to keep parlors cleaner, although the financial benefit is a subject of debate.

Paap was out of town on business when the HSUS officials were in town. He says the Farm Bureau leaders who met HSUS delegation were surprised that Paul Shapiro, HSUS’ national director of factory farm campaigns, was among them.

The state president says it should have been no surprise to HSUS that the Farm Bureau leaders couldn’t assure their support for the “and cattle” amendment because their state policy doesn’t address it. The Farm Bureau way for 91 years is for policies to bubble up from county organizations.

Paap says it was appropriate for Farm Bureau to agree to such a meeting.

“We’re willing to sit down with all stakeholders, consumers, elected officials — this involved in other industries, outside ag,” Paap says.

“We’re farmers and ranchers,” Paap says. “Animal care is our top priority, and we take pride in the care we give to our livestock,” keeping them “safe, healthy and free from disease.”

Gregory says recent legislative and policy victories for HSUS in California, Ohio, Michigan and Washington states easily could be replicated in Minnesota. He says egg producers are a particular “piñata” for the HSUS with a “target on our chest” among organizations that oppose the use of caged layers.

He’s a lobbyist for U.S. egg producers who today include only 200 primary players. He says if the Humane Society of the United States get its way, cage systems — which currently house 95 percent of the nation’s laying hens — would be eliminated and egg production simply would shift to Mexico and Brazil.

Gregory paints a future scenario in which HSUS-sponsored changes would force out U.S. production. U.S. corn and soybeans that are produced in Minnesota other Midwest states would be exported to Brazil, Mexico and China to feed livestock, and then the meat, milk and eggs would be shipped back to the U.S. for consumption.

Gregory says the U.S. egg industry is outgunned politically. The egg council has only a $2.5 million in annual funding and eight employees.

100 pro bono lawyers

To compare, the HSUS has a $131 million in revenue and 11 million members, often by people who think the organization’s primary goal simply is rescuing cats and dogs. He says the HSUS organization has 470 employees and gets help from 112 lawyers, including 100 who do their work pro bono — for free. He says the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has an annual budget of some $29 million.

Gregory says the animal activists will target the 24 states where citizens can pass new laws through statewide votes, such as California’s Proposition 2, which required that “farm animals should have the ability to stand up, sit down, turn around and extend their limbs without touching anything.” The proposition passed 63 percent to 37 percent, despite the animal industry’s raising $10 million to stop it. If unchanged, he says this means the egg, pork and veal industries in that state will go out of business by 2015.

Gregory says the industry became proactive in 1999 and “hand-picked the world’s best independent scientists” from the food industry to create a “United Egg Producers Certified” program, which makes sure animal handling is done humanely. About 80 percent of the egg cartons sold in the U.S. are produced under this certification, which requires annual audits.

Producing chickens in a free-range system would not be practical to produce current egg output, Gregory says, because of the “astronomical” amount of land they’d take. He says because of the difference in efficiency, it would require 15 million more egg-laying chickens to produce the current amount, and 1 million acres more of corn and soybean production to feed them.

He says German production has declined to 65 percent of levels 10 years ago because of “ridiculous regulations.”

Gregory says the U.S. meat industry is partnering with groups including Feeding America, an association of 200 food banks based in Chicago, to launch a campaign on behalf of “modern agriculture.” Among other things, it features celebrity spokesman Mike Rowe of the Discovery network’s “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe” show.

John Deen, an associate professor of animal science at the University of Minnesota, who also spoke at the event, says the financial base for these animal activist groups tends to be older, single females who think the main focus is on dogs and cats. But he also says the groups are supported by younger population, which is “really driven by an interest, a desire to make this world a better place.”

Deen says that while the industry needs to “recognize there are areas where we do need to improve,” there also should be gratitude in understanding that “food is produced at a level and a price that is a great gift to the American society.”