Countryside Conservancy has neither endorsed nor opposed Issue 2. Our goal is to share educational information to the voters of Ohio.

Early voting began at local board of elections on September 29, 2009.

New proponent information can be viewed at the following web sites:

http://www.safelocalohiofood.org
http://ourohio.org/index-php?page=yes-on-issue-2#

New opponents have merged since writing this article and they include, but are not limited to:

The Ohio League of Women Voters
The Ohio Farmers Union
The Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association

New opposition information can be viewed at the following website:

http://www.ohioact.org/#

I hope this information is helpful and I hope to see you at the polls!

The focus of the HSUS is not to put your family out of business but rather to engage with farmers and consumers to find fair ways of balancing the producer’s need for efficiency with what we would argue is a very basic measure of an animal’s welfare: the ability to move.

I recognize that this is only one of many factors for measuring a farm animal’s quality of life. For example, as you point out, you provide food and shelter. But the intense confinement of gestation crates frustrates many instincts and behaviors. According to the AVMA’s Task Force on the Housing of Pregnant Sows, “Sows housed in stalls cannot exercise…control over their environment. They can use only minimal behavior to thermoregulate, cannot avoid sows that are aggressive or approach those with whom grooming relationships might be established, cannot flee a fear-producing stimulus, and cannot easily choose a place to lie down that is separate from where they defecate….In general…lack of control over stressful components of the environment suggests a reduction in welfare.” (Task Force on the Housing of Pregnant Sows. 2005. A comprehensive review of housing for pregnant sows. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 227(10):1580-90.)

There are scientific studies that can be marshaled for both sides of this debate, and I think much of it comes down to what these studies set out to measure.

Major corporations like Smithfield have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and I have no doubt that farmers are innovative enough to accommodate these changes.

The problem with the proposals that you stated is that at first glance it look reasonable, but their is no research behind it that it will create better standards for livestock. In fact, reasearch from the AVMA shows that your proposal would lead to a higher death rate for flocks in free range systems http://bit.ly/hyGf2

I find it funny that an employee from your organization is not aware of the laws in Ohio that allow local shelters to operate and enforce animal abuse cases. It is the duty of local humane shelters to investigate cases of all reported animal abuses in the county in which they operate, this means both companion and livestock animals. Most shelters in Ohio’s countryside have a major dilemma when responding to livestock cases, there is no clear cut rules on what is abuse, this board will establish those rules that they have been lacking. The four shelters you noted are inner city shelters, and probably don’t run across this problem very often.

I am a proud farmers wife. Before I married my husband I was a city girl. I married into a family of proud 4th generation hog farmers. My husband works 12 hours a day with his father and brother to bring good quality pork to America’s dinner table. I have helped him out on many occasions and can say that the hogs are treated well and seem content in their space. Gestation crates are a way to protect the sows from hurting each other and to protect the person caring for them, they also make my husband’s work much faster then what it would be if they didn’t have the crates, which brings him home earlier to be with our boys at night. What the USHS wants hog farmers to do would put us out of business. We are not even breaking even right now, and the changes you want to make would cost too much, and what would it prove? Can you prove to me that the hogs would be happier? Tell me how are they treated bad? They have a roof over their head, they get fed, and are taken care until they go to market. Some humans here in our own country don’t have it that well. If what happened in California happens here, there will be many families losing their way of life. My son wants to be a hog farmer, and I will do what it takes to ensure he will get that chance, and that includes getting issue 2 passed. We are proud farmers, who treat our livestock with respect and will continue to do so for generations to come.

I am a full time farmer in Ohio, my wife and I also have 30 purebred Simmental beef cows that we raise for breeding stock. I am a strong supporter of Issue 2 because after working with my local humane society for the past year I have found that their is a lack of guidelines in Ohio for them to refer to when investigating animal abuse. Currently the best resource for them is to look at what is industry accepted practice, sometime this does not give them enough information to decide what is or is not abuse.

What this board will do is establish a set of guidelines using sound research for both livestock owners and animal cruelty investigators to refer to. It is a huge step for Ohio’s livestock industry to step up to the plate ask for a board that represents all parties to come up with acceptable practices that they must follow.

This is why the American Humane Association, and the local shelters in Ohio have all stepped up in support of creating a livestock care board in Ohio.

I do agree that no farmer wants any more regulations to follow, but sometimes they are needed in order to move forward.

Thanks again for this post,

Mike Haley