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Is animal welfare compromise good for Ohio?

Critics say neighboring states are wooing livestock operations.

Changes could cost Ohio's egg, hog industries

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer 10:24 PM Saturday, July 24, 2010

Within days of the news that agribusiness groups and the Humane Society of the United States had compromised over farm animal housing, livestock farm consultant Tom Menke said he received calls pitching potential egg and hog farm locations just over Ohio’s borders in Indiana and Pennsylvania.

Unlike Ohio, those two states and many others don’t allow citizens to place animal welfare and other issues on the ballot for voters to decide. Menke, whose consulting business is based in Darke County, believes that restriction gives those states an advantage in drawing new farm investment.

“Right now, it’ll put Ohio at a competitive disadvantage,” said Pete Dull, whose family farm near Brookville has 500 sows and raises 11,000 hogs per year. He plans to retire when gestation crates are phased out, in part because he doesn’t anticipate a new generation taking over the hog operation. “Something needs to be done at a federal level” to level the playing field.

If there is evidence that some states are keeping animal care standards low to make themselves more attractive for farm investment, Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Robert Boggs said he and other state agriculture directors will request that the federal government “do something about it.”

But even if changes in federal regulations create uniform animal husbandry standards nationwide, some farmers feel food production could move elsewhere.

“It may not even be in the United States,” said Phillip Jordan, a second-generation hog farmer in Preble County.

Others portrayed the compromise as an opportunity to chart a more positive course for farm animal husbandry in Ohio. The agreement changes the discussion about animal care from one dominated by “anger and shrillness” into a more constructive dialogue, said Boggs, an appointee of Gov. Ted Strickland, who brokered the compromise.

Consumers and large food chains already are bringing about changes similar to those called for in the compromise, Boggs said. For example, Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest hog producer, announced in 2007 that it would phase out individual gestation crates at its company-owned farms by 2017.

“If we can make consumers more satisfied with livestock conditions, it could mean larger markets for us both here and overseas,” he said.

Sellout or  common ground?

Agricultural groups had hoped to gain the upper hand in their struggle with animal rights activists in 2009, convincing legislators to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment creating the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. Voters handily approved Issue 2 in November.

But the Humane Society of the United States, which has had success in spearheading citizen-initiated ballot initiatives in states such as California, Arizona and Florida, began collecting signatures to put its own constitutional amendment on the Ohio ballot. That amendment, if approved by voters, would have compelled the Livestock Care Standards Board to stop farmers, after six years, from confining pregnant pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves in tight spaces, allowing them to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely. That would have effectively outlawed in Ohio the practice of keeping pigs in “gestation crates” and chickens in “battery cages.”

Internal surveys showed that amendment was polling well with voters, with support “well above 60 percent,” said Paul Shapiro, senior director of HSUS’ “End Factory Farming” campaign.

But before HSUS filed petitions said to contain more than 500,000 signatures, a flurry of negotiations ensued behind closed doors in June, and a compromise between HSUS and farm groups was announced June 30.

Despite strong support for a constitutional amendment, Shapiro said, the HSUS didn’t sell out its membership by agreeing to a compromise.

“Instead of spending tens of millions of dollars on an uncertain outcome, two sides agreed we could find a middle ground that could avert an expensive campaign,” Shapiro said. “I think it’s an important advance for animal welfare achieved in a way that’s a win-win for all sides involved.”

Shapiro doesn’t think the farm animal compromises, once put in place by the Livestock Care Standards Board, will drive agribusiness out of Ohio. He said many such claims made during ballot issue campaigns in other states haven’t come to pass.

“These types of claims are dubious and unsupported by what’s happened in other states,” he said. “This is about helping agriculture move into the future.”

David Meadows of Dayton, who collected more than 3,500 signatures for the HSUS ballot initiative, said he was “overjoyed” by the compromise.

“Both sides need to stop the war and start talking about what is reality,” he said.

Dick Isler, executive vice president of the Ohio Pork Producers Council, said many members were initially shocked by the agreement but said farm groups didn’t sell out their membership either. The industry had to face the reality that the HSUS ballot initiative, if successful, would have been devastating for the hog and egg industries, he said.

“The agreement we got was by far the best agreement that the chicken and pork industries have gotten in any state,” he said. Many folks who still want to fight HSUS, he said, “probably don’t have a lot of investment in the pork and poultry industry.”

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Animal welfare compromise

Agribusiness groups and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which had been at odds over how farm animals are housed, on June 30 announced a compromise brokered by Gov. Ted Strickland. Here’s a look at the compromise’s key recommendations for livestock farming:

Ohio’s hog farms must stop keeping pregnant pigs in “gestation crates” by the end of 2025. After this year, new hog farms may not use gestation crates.

What HSUS wanted: gestation crates phased out in six years.

What farm groups said they got: More time for members to phase out gestation crates, and an agreement that hogs may be housed in the gestation crates until they are confirmed to be pregnant.

New Ohio egg farms would not be able to house chickens in small “battery cages.”

What HSUS wanted: All battery cages phased out in six years.

What farm groups said they got: Existing egg farms can continue to use “battery cages” until the state’s Livestock Care Standards Board says otherwise.

Other recommendations:

Prohibit farms from transporting or selling any cattle too sick or injured to stand or walk.

Dog breeding kennels would come under new licensing requirements and care standards, as called for in Senate Bill 95

Agribusiness organizations and HSUS would fund independent research projects and studies to identify best practices for farm animal husbandry.

Toughen penalties for those engaged in cockfighting, as called for in House Bill 108.

Prohibit the sale and possession of big cats, bears, primates, large constricting and venomous snakes, and alligators and crocodiles. Existing owners would be grandfathered in, but couldn’t breed or obtain new animals.

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