We all know farmers from the television don’t we?…perhaps a tad curmudgeonly but generally salt of the earth heroes dashing about wrapping towels around little baby lambs in a benign glow of altruism. Which is why it is odd that stories about cruelty to farm animals keep rearing their head throughout the history of meatismurder.info. Here is another one.

A farmer has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after he admitted to chopping bull horns off with hedge loppers. Mark Arthur Atchison was fined $2700 in Morrinsville District Court yesterday for cutting off horns from six bulls that were in his care. The Hereford bulls were found with bloody horn stumps by a New Zealand Food Safety Authority veterinarian during a routine pre-slaughter inspection. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry investigations manager Greg Reid said the removal of horns in this manner would have caused the animals a great deal of pain, distress and suffering, including the days following removal. A search of Aitchison’s property by the vet revealed 14 cut off horn tips, after which he made a full admission, saying he had always used the hedge loppers to remove horn tips. “This sentence sends out a strong message that painful and barbaric procedures such as this are unacceptable,” Mr Reid said.

We could develop new exotic grasses for cows to eat and curb the pollution by livestock farmers of the environment…or we could recognise the cows as sentient emotion filled individuals, stop breeding them to be killed by their tyrant gods and masters, and move to a better world where peoples dinner plates aren’t filled with the harvest of brutal murder. Also if people stopped eating cows the rainforests would stop being levelled to grow crops to feed the cattle. Yes, this means even if you sponsor a panda if you eat meat you are contributing to the death of the natural world.

Burping cows and sheep are being targeted by UK scientists to help bring down Britain’s soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of “man-made” methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends.

Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat. The altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas, he said. The institute has started a new government research programme, with the universities of Wales and Reading, to investigate how this process could be improved. A similar project in New Zealand suggested that dietary changes could reduce methane emissions from sheep by up to 50%.

Dr Abberton said: “It’s very unlikely that we’ll get that sort of reduction in the UK but it could still make a significant difference. Making the animals’ diet more digestible can lower their methane emissions.” A single cow can produce between 100 and 200 litres of methane every day. Farmers regularly re-sow their fields so Dr Abberton said the switch in diet could be relatively straightforward. Birdsfoot trefoil can be difficult to grow, he said, but part of the new project is to develop more suitable varieties.

read rest of story

THE PAIN AND SUFFERING OF FOIE GRAS

Foie gras, French for “fatty liver,” is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds’ throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds’ throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds’ livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras. Learn more about investigations of foie gras factory farms.

People around the world have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras effective in 2012, and Chicago banned the sale of this cruel product in 2006. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles, and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.

Find out what you can do to help stop the cruel foie gras industry.

More great PR for Bernard Matthews. They must have Max Clifford on the case they are doing that well.

Bernard Matthews probes cruelty claim (story from eveningnews24)

Turkey producer Bernard Matthews was again embroiled in controversy today after footage showed a worker abusing animals at one of its farms.

WPvideo 1.10

get video

Secretly-obtained video film shows a worker repeatedly kicking turkeys at the firm’s farm in Wreningham, near Wymondham.

It comes a year after footage was obtained of two of the firm’s staff playing baseball with live turkeys at its farm in Haveringland, Norfolk.

After that incident, turkey catchers Daniel Palmer, 27, and Neil Allen, 30, were ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.

The latest footage was released by animal rights activists at the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Frettenham.

(read rest of story> )

The day that battery farms are obliterated will be such an amazing day, until then we have to suffer news reports like the one below. It is possible to take heart from enlightened countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark that all have moved or are in the process of moving to totally banning battery cages..

Update: Pennsylvania Court Finds that Animal Abuse on Egg Factory Farm is Legal

WPvideo 1.10

An Injustice for Battery Hens

During November and December 2005, a COK investigator was employed at Esbenshade Farms in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

The video footage was then presented to a state certified humane officer.

In January 2006, the officer charged the owner and manager of this egg
factory each with a total of 70 counts of criminal animal cruelty.

Despite the clear evidence of cruelty, in June 2007, the court found the
defendants “not guilty.”

Please watch this video and decide for yourself. Is this something you’re
willing to support?

01:08

get video

Acquittal in Cruelty Case Further Demonstrates that the Foxes Are Guarding the Factory Farm Henhouse

On June 1, 2007, a Lancaster County judge acquitted a Pennsylvania egg factory farm owner and manager of animal cruelty charges, essentially re-writing state cruelty law to find that abuse is perfectly legal as long as it is committed against farmed animals.

“This ruling reveals that—under this judge’s opinion—farm animals in Pennsylvania have no legal protection from the horrific conditions that were clearly documented inside this egg factory farm” stated Erica Meier, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Compassion Over Killing (COK). “This court may have acquitted these two defendants, but the court of public opinion is certainly turning against the egg industry and its cruel practices.”

The verdict was handed down after a trial in which the court was presented with undercover video evidence revealing appalling conditions for hens in the facility. The footage was gathered by a COK investigator who was employed at Esbenshade in late 2005, then presented to Pennsylvania-certified humane officer Johnna Seeton of the Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network (PLAN) who subsequently filed 70 counts of criminal animal cruelty against the owner and manager of the farm. See Background section below for more detail.

According to COK’s general counsel Cheryl Leahy, “If these animals had been dogs or cats, there’s little doubt this case would have resulted in a conviction. There is a clear double standard here, and that hypocrisy is troubling.”

Read COK’s press release on the court’s ruling.

Background

From November 30 to December 9, 2005, an investigator affiliated with Compassion Over Killing worked undercover at Esbenshade Farms, one of the nation’s top egg producers, located in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. While there, he documented appalling conditions for hundreds of thousands of hens including:

• birds overcrowded in wire cages so small, they cannot spread their wings,
• hens left to suffer from untreated illnesses or injuries,
• birds with their wings, legs, or feet entangled in the wires of cages, unable to access food or water,
• injured or dying birds removed from their cages and left in the aisles without access to food or water,
• birds impaled on the wires of the cages with many found already dead as a result of the painful immobilization, and
• hens living in cages amongst decomposing bodies of other birds.

To learn more about the investigation:

Visit our photo gallery		Read the investigator’s log notes		Review expert statements

Criminal Charges Filed

COK presented the video footage to a Lancaster County humane officer who agreed that the conditions for hens at this factory farm are cruel and inhumane. As a result of the video documentation and other evidence, the owner of Esbenshade Farms and the manager of the facility in Mount Joy were each charged with 35 counts of criminal animal cruelty. Read more about this investigation and the charges filed as reported in a feature article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Case Goes to Court

The criminal trial against the owner and manager of Esbenshade Farms started on April 18, 2006, during which the defense’s motion to suppress COK’s video evidence was denied.

The trial continued on August 7, 2006, and resumed again on March 1, 2007.

On March 2, the defense’s motion for acquittal was denied.

Visit our Press Room for media coverage of this case.

Esbenshade and the Egg Industry

Esbenshade Farms does not even participate in the United Egg Producers’ (UEP) voluntary certification program, which sets forth the absolute barest of minimum guidelines for laying hen husbandry. While these guidelines still permit a wide variety of abuses, the fact that Esbenshade Farms will not even agree to follow them says a lot about the company. In fact, more than 80 percent of the egg industry participates in the UEP’s program.

Esbenshade Farms is Pennsylvania’s third-largest egg producer operating three egg factory farms, which house a total of 2.25 million hens in battery cages. At the facility in Mount Joy, the investigator was one of four workers monitoring seven sheds in which an estimated 600,000 battery hens are confined. In other words, each worker is responsible for the care of approximately 150,000 birds each day. To make matters worse, the cages at this facility are so dilapidated that countless birds become injured or imapaled on loose wires, preventing them from accessing food or water. Many die as a result of these debilitating conditions.

Taking Action

Choose Egg-Free Foods: The best way each of us can help laying hens is to leave their eggs out of our shopping carts. Get free eggless recipes and/or order your free Vegetarian Starter Guide today!

I hope this is a turning point and we can look back at this date that things started to change. Look at this post from meatinfo. Get stuck in with the debate at the Daily Mail.

The government is considering a secret plan to turn the nation vegan, according to reports in the Daily Mail.

The paper reported that a leaked email from a government department expressed sympathy for the environmental benefits of the mass switch to a vegan diet.

However farming leaders have dismissed the idea as “simplistic”.

The email was sent from the Environment Agency to a vegetarian campaign group and the paper claimed it said: “The potential benefit of a vegan diet in terms of climate impact could be very significant.”

But, the message recognised that it would be very difficult to win public support, and said Defra was looking to encourage a gradual change that would be more palatable to the public.

The e-mail states: “It will be a case of introducing this gently as there is a risk of alienating the public majority.”

The report said the official goes on to say it is “unlikely” that the Environment Agency would ever suggest adopting a fully vegan lifestyle, but added: “Certainly encouraging people to examine their consumption of animal protein could be a key message.”

The NFU’s Anthony Gibson told the Daily Mail the claims were “simplistic and flawed”, and NFU president Peter Kendall told the BBC’s Today show that from an environmental point of view there was a case that more intensive farming of livestock could actually play a beneficial role for the environment.