Comments on: Prop 2 will keep us from torturing our food animals

By: Gary Bogue

Gary Bogue — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:28:21 +0000

Megan: One of us definitely has no idea about what is or isn’t inhumane, and she isn’t me. Have you ever visited a commercial egg farm? I have, and I certainly wouldn’t call rows and rows of 160,000 hens stuffed 8-to-a-cage in 3′x3′x3′ wire cages piled on top of each other, “not inhumane.” They couldn’t stand and crap from the birds on top of the piles rained down endlessly on the other birds below them. Factory farming is “not inhumane?” As I walked down the aisles of hens stuffed in cages, I kept stumbling over the bodies of dead hens on the floor where someone had tossed them when they found them dead in the cages. When you stop being a student studying animal science where you are “instructed on proper treatment of farm animals everyday,” step out into the REAL world and take a long look. “The process that animal producers use to make a product that you and I consume everyday” is NOT ALWAYS humane. Time for a reality check. /Gary

By: Megan Bettencourt

Megan Bettencourt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:31:58 +0000

I believe in humane treatment of all animals. As a student studying animal science we are instructed on proper treatment of farm animals everyday! The one aspect that is not projected by the media is that farm animals produce more for the people if they are treated humanly. A dairy cow will produce more milk if she is fed and housed properly. Farm animals have evolved to the animals they are because they have a specific pupose. This purpose is to provide us humans with the nutrition we need! Too many people in our society have an emotional attachment to animals that have been born and bred for a purpose! Maybe there should be a food shortage in our country so the people that feel so strongly for something most of them have no idea about will understand that the processes that animal producers use to make a product that you and I consume everyday is NOT inhumane!

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:32:55 +0000

One argument I’ve heard a few times is that “cage-free” chickens aren’t really “free-range”, since they live indoors, so why bother regulating how they’re kept? This misses the point that it isn’t torture for a hen to live indoors, as long as she can move around, peck properly, and interact with other hens in the flock the way her instincts tell her to do. This is why I’ve been buying cage-free eggs for a long time.

Yes on Prop 2!

By: Maggie

Maggie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:45:51 +0000

I like how you put this Gary – it will keep us from torturing our food animals – yes! Animals eat each other in the wild all the time, the difference is that until the moment of death the prey animal lived a free, wild life – free to choose a mate, move around, eat what it wants etc. Our food animals are denied all of that. My view is that, if it is true that we are what we eat, then eating animals from factory farms is eating suffering. I don’t want to eat a plate of suffering and have that pain become part of me! Prop 2 doesn’t go far enough but change in society only happens in small increments, so please vote YES on Prop 2!