IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 6
Ironically, the creation of legal exemptions for acts specifically toward
farm animals is a tacit admission that, prior to the exemptions, the acts
were considered cruel under the law and thus would have been criminal
offenses. Elected representatives thus are creating a legally protected
sphere wherein any act, if it is viewed as customary by agribusiness, is not
to be found cruel and any future practice, if it becomes customary, is
allowed no matter how horrific it is. 108
These laws excuse factory farms from ethical animal production practices.
By exempting livestock agriculture from liability for practices that would
be construed to be cruel were they to be done to any non-agricultural
animal, such as deprivation of movement, social interactions, light, and
other quality of life factors, these laws give factory farms a major
competitive advantage over farms that do not engage in these practices.
They also eliminate a potentially effective tool with which citizen groups
could have effectively opposed the establishing of animal factories.
Farmers who treat their animals with respect for their natures are
internalizing the costs of providing a humane environment for them.
Animal factories externalize those costs by evading that responsibility.
The first to bear these externalized costs are the animals, but the costs of
the failure to farm in ways that respect the welfare of farm animals extend
beyond the boundary of the farm. Everyone ultimately bears the costs of
the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics. Taxpayers and natural resource
users bear the costs of soil and water pollution by liquid manure spills.
Future generations will bear the costs of global warming and depleted
resources.
Conclusions
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Until production systems meet the species-specific needs of farm animals,
we are farming beyond their ability to adapt. 109 Ultimately, ignoring the
welfare of production animals makes animal agriculture unsustainable.
Polls have revealed that the American public cares about how farm
animals are raised. 110,111 Some already pay more for meat and other
products from animals raised respectfully. 112 However, many, possibly
most, consumers remain ignorant of the hostile conditions for animals
inside animal factories.
Understood as a basic biological and ecological issue influencing
sustainability, food safety, environmental quality, and the preservation of a
viable independent family farm structure of agriculture, animal welfare is
a factory-farm issue around which farmers can be mobilized. As an ethical
and public health issue, it is a factory-farm issue around which consumers