Livestock “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL JUNE 15, 2013 • www. aaalivestock . com
Ag Gags e’ve grown accustomed to grainy video footage on the nightly news of cops beating a defenseless law breaker with their batons, from the Rodney King thrashing that started the L.A. riots, to the recent episode in Kern County California in which officers are accused of beating David Sal Silva so savagely that he died. Amy Meyer also witnessed what she considered inhumane treatment. Only in her case it wasn’t a person that made her furious. It was a cow. Meyer went to Smith & Sons Meat Packing in Draper City, Utah, looking for trouble. At the plant she whipped out her smart phone and started filming the transport of a live cow in a tractor’s bucket. The manager of the plant saw Amy and accused her of trespassing. He also called the cops. Meyer claimed it wasn’t necessary to trespass and that she did all her filming from a public sidewalk. The cops decided Amy had not trespassed and released her. End of story, right? Amy thought she was in the clear and was free to post her photos on You Tube or Facebook but the beef packer, who also happens to be the Mayor of Draper City, may, or may not have, persuaded the city prosecutor to charge Amy with “agricultural operation interference,” figuring six-months in the Draper City jail would teach her not to
W
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
MARKET
Digest I Volume 55 • No. 6
Education is what you get when you read fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.
by Lee Pitts
stick her smart phone into other people’s business. In less than 24 hours all charges against Amy were dropped, but not before Amy had become the first person to be charged with a crime under an “ag-gag” law. In doing so the 25 year old also became a “poster child” for the animal rights movement.
R Rated In the past few years these video events have regularly popped up on video and TV screens as animal welfare groups were busy secretly getting their people into packing houses,
chicken sheds, feedlots and hog farms under the disguise of being an employee. They then videotaped incidents of what they considered mistreatment of animals. The Humane Society of the United States has been the biggest producer of these R-rated videos. The R in this case standing for “results”. In Vermont their video at a slaughter plant led to the plant’s closure and a felony criminal conviction. In West Virginia in 2009, three employees at Aviagen Turkeys were charged with felony animal cruelty as a result of an undercover video by PETA. The HSUS investigation of
Wyoming Premium Farms documented rampant animal abuse and brought charges of criminal animal cruelty for nine workers. The Humane Society’s biggest hit with the Hollywood crowd was their undercover investigation into the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company in southern California. Their video of downer cows being fork-lifted resulted in the largest meat recall in U.S. history. More than 143 million pounds of beef, most of it destined for school cafeterias, were recalled and destroyed, despite the fact no one got sick from it. Videos like this have taken down entire companies quicker than you can say “hatchet job”, and have sent several folks to the slammer. But they have also accomplished what the HSUS was hoping for all along: they reduced Americans appetite for beef. A 2010 Kansas State University study came to the conclusion that, “Media attention to animal welfare has significant, negative effects on U.S. meat demand.” continued on page two
Another Federal Government Cover-up? BY KAREN BUDD-FALEN / BUDD FALEN LAW OFFICES CHEYENNE, WYOMING
his is a plea for help, to raise awareness and public outcry regarding yet another federal government cover-up. The scandal — the Justice and Treasury Departments’ refusal to inform the American taxpayer how much, and for what, their tax dollars are being spent and despite individual well-meaning Congressmen, the inability of Congress to put forth legislation that requires this information to be available to the American public. How can there be reform of a crisis (or how can radical environmental groups prove that our claims of abuse are blown out of proportion) without transparency and an accounting? According to a study from Drexel University, there are 6,500 national and 20,000 local environmental organizations with an estimated 2030 million members. This study opines that the “environmental movement” dwarfs other modern social movements such as the civil rights or peace movements. Because it would be impossi-
T
Riding Herd
ble to study all 6,500 national groups, we reviewed all the federal district court complaints over a series of years for just three of these groups and found: ■ Thirty-five percent (35 percent) of federal court complaints are filed ONLY based on a missed procedural step under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”); ■ Twenty nine percent (29 percent) of federal court complaints are filed ONLY based upon missed timelines under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”): ■ Eleven percent (11 percent) of all federal court complaints are filed because of a failure to complete the process for considering an action under “Section 7” of the ESA. Importantly, these are not cases where the federal court can rule that there is harm to the environment or that additional substantive actions are necessary; the ONLY thing a court can do is send the case back to the federal government for more process. But that is not why this litigation is filed: liti-
by LEE PITTS
Don’t Miss This One
get a lot of horse sale catalogs and to hear them tell it, none of the horses ever took a wrong step. Just once I’d like to read something like this: Lot #1- Frisbee, a buckskin consigned by Trader Joe. So named because he’s hard to catch. Sired by Ivan the Terrible and out of Eulogy, a mare who pulled a plow all her life. A little humpy in the morning and truly does not like anything on his back. Buy this horse and you’ll soon be doing equestrian feats you never thought possible. Lot #2- Root Canal, the property of Coyote Charley. Bay mare sired by the great Horse Face and out of the mare, Boneyard. Root Canal is unregistered, untrained and unwanted, at least around this outfit. Her mother is a full sister to a PRCA horse; that’s right, a PRCA bareback bronc in Cotton Rosser’s Flying U Rodeo, to be exact. Feel free to put your kid up on her, if your kid can ride like Casey Tibbs. Lot #3- Orwell, consigned by Kettle Belly Bill, this flea bag pinto gelding was born in 1984. Hence, the name. Orwell has many features that aren’t hard to miss including an overshot jaw, fistulated withers and lots of color. Yes, lots of chrome but not much under the hood on this one. Used in a salesyard for years (pulling the feed wagon.) Lot #4- Buzzard Bait, a sorrel consigned by Lard Bottom Bob and Single Cinch Sally out of Sunfisher and sired by a real famous horse you’ve never heard of. His father had lifetime career earnings of $12.50. Can’t catch, can’t shoe and can’t load but we have shot off him... once. Seems to show a passing interest in cattle. Lot #5- Old Leather Lip, a roan knothead consigned by Alibi Abe. Sired by Write Off and out of a plug named Dishwater. A true kid’s horse, yes, my kid is selling him because she needs money for college. She never could ride him but your kid might. Would make a good barrel horse, hauling barrels, that is. Full disclosure: don’t tie this horse up unless you want a shorter set of reins continued on page eight
continued on page three
www.LeePittsbooks.com