Jan 24 2009
Animal Husbandry
In light of my recent local news over the past week about authorities breaking up a puppy mill ring by seizing over six hundred dogs so far, many of them pregnant, I thought I’d write about appropriate animal husbandry. Dogs, chickens, goats…it makes no difference; a complete lack of understanding, compassion and commitment to the animal is, ultimately, inexcusable.
Basic information about minimum requirements by species is pretty easily available out there in the world, especially if you have access to the internet. If you cannot meet those basic requirements, don’t bring that animal home. If you only have enough square footage for three hens, only bring three hens home. If you can’t put up goat proof fencing, don’t bring a goat home. The fourth or fifth time you have to go retrieve the goat from an irate neighbor and open your wallet to pay for the Japanese maple the goat just turned into a stick figure, you’re going to start holding it against the goat. I assure you, that goat will know it…and, goats being who they are, things will only escalate. Also understand that the minimum requirements are usually “industry standards” which have been established for a least-cost scenario, not with the physical and specifically the psychological needs of the animal as a prime focus. Just because a hen can live out her life in six square feet doesn’t mean she should, anymore than you should live in a walk-in closet.
Animals are not commodities, not even animals that produce commodities. They are partners. This is where big agribiz will never be able to make the grade; when you commodify animals, you are bound to make horrible decisions regarding their welfare with predictable results. How else can feeding meat to herbivores possibly be explained? That corporate decision had nothing to do with the needs of the cows; it had to do with research that indicated that cows need a certain amount of protein, and the industry deciding to use meat to provide that protein because it was cheap. Not because it was good for the cows. Same thing for the poultry farms, whether for eggs or meat. If you have no real grasp of what goes on in commercial poultry farms, read Prison Chickens Poison Eggs by Karen Davis, PhD . Brace yourself; the author cuts no corners on her information.
Do not mistake this for a call for vegetarianism. I am not, nor do I have any intention of becoming, vegetarian. It is instead a demand for humans to take responsibility for the creatures they have domesticated and bred up. If you cannot call each of your livestock animals by name, if you cannot look out in the yard or walk through the farmyard and be able to tell whether or not all is right with the animals you steward, you probably have too many. “The eye of the master fattens the cattle ” should perhaps be posted over every barn door regardless the size of the barn.
