The Monday, July 12, New York Times includes an editorial, titled "A Humane Egg." The editorial is important for the animals on many counts: It points to two pieces of legislation that will have a significant impact on the welfare of farm animals, it shows the acknowledgment by one of the world's leading newspapers that farm animal welfare issues merit editorial coverage, and it gives us an opportunity to push the envelope in a direction that will eventually make a radically more significant difference.
An editorial, unlike a column that reflects the opinion of a columnist, or an op-ed from a contributor, gives the official opinion of the New York Times editorial page. This one opens with:
"The life of animals raised in confinement on industrial farms is slowly improving, thanks to pressure from consumers, animal rights advocates, farmers and legislators. In late June, a compromise was reached in Ohio that will gradually put an end to the tiny pens used for raising veal calves and holding pregnant sows, spaces so small the animals can barely move.
"In California last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring that all whole eggs sold in the state conform to the provisions of Proposition 2, the humane farming law that was embraced by state voters in a landslide in 2008."
Let me explain those points a little further: A ballot initiative similar to the one that passed in California in 2008, banning the most extreme forms of animal confinement -- veal crates, sow gestation crates, and battery cages for laying hens -- had been planned for Ohio. As California's initiative had passed with the most "yes" votes in the history of California ballot initiatives, the Ohio farm industry saw the writing on wall and last week struck a deal granting most of the reforms. You can read about the deal on the HSUS website here: http://tinyurl.com/24bznb7
Taking the deal means guaranteed improvements instead of the gamble of the ballot box, and it allows the money and effort that would have been spent on the Ohio initiative to now go towards chip chip chipping away at the system elsewhere.
The importance of the second point, California's new law requiring that all whole eggs sold, not just produced, in California conform to Prop 2 provisions, negates the opposition's argument that Prop 2 was destined to ruin the California egg industry. More importantly for the animals it means that producers interested in the huge California market will have to conform to California standards.
Unfortunately this does not guarantee anything like a decent life or death for the animals, who are still unjustly confined and treated like egg laying machines because they are unfortunate enough to produce a product that humans enjoy eating. Given the injustice of the whole system, it can be hard to get excited about a law which does so little. But if innocent humans were being held on death row, packed so closely in crates that they could not move, we would surely be doing what we could to get them out of the crates. Surely the animals desire that space just as much as we would and deserve similar efforts. And we should not underestimate the physical relief of being able to simply stretch one's limbs.
The cause for optimism, I think (partly because cynicism is generally just an excuse for doing nothing) is that these improvements are a step in the right direction, an acknowledgment first by the voting public, and now by a leading newspaper, that animal welfare, and not just dog and cat welfare, is something that matters.
The Times editorial ends with this strong indictment on factory farming:
"Industrial confinement is cruel and senseless and will turn out to be, we hope, a relatively short-lived anomaly in modern farming."
You'll find the full editorial on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/opinion/12mon4.html
Again, banning the worst forms of animal confinement does not eliminate horrendous cruelty. If you check out some of the recent alerts in the archives on the DawnWatch website, you'll find stories on tail docking and dehorning on dairy farms that will make your stomach turn, and video of unwanted male adorable chirping chicks being tossed live into grinders at hatcheries. And if you read Thanking the Monkey you'll find out what impotent tags most of the organic and welfare labels are with regard to animal cruelty. As this list was designed for animal advocates, as a place where they can learn about current stories in order to participate in their coverage, I assume most people on this list are eating planting based diets or heading quickly in that direction. Yet let's remember that most people who read the New York Times are not. This editorial therefore gives us an excellent opportunity to reach out -- to commend the paper for acknowledging that animals matter, and to get re
aders to rethink their consumption of animal products given that plant based diets are so good for our health, for the planet, and of course, for the animals.
The New York Times takes letters at letters@nytimes.com
Folks in Ohio and California can send similar letters, based on the new regulations, to their local papers. You can almost always find the address for a letter to your editor under the "contact us" tab on your paper's website. Some of the smaller papers publish close to 100 percent of the letters they receive so why not take this opportunity to speak up for the voiceless?
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any exact comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !
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Date: Mon Jul 12 18:31:39 2010
