New Jersey Court Rules Factory Farm Practices Not Humane

Factory farming practices cannot be considered humane simply because they are widely used, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, setting a legal precedent for further actions to end the worst abuses on factory farms throughout the United States.

In a unanimous decision, the court struck down the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s regulations exempting all routine husbandry practices as “humane,” and ordered the agency to readdress many of the state-mandated standards for the treatment of farm animals.

Many states have an exemption to their cruelty code for “routine” or “commonly accepted” practices which leaves animals confined in factory farms unprotected from abuse.

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Many factory farm animals go through so many painful experiences. For example, they are often confined to tiny spaces, and may have their tails docked or their beaks and feet removed with no anesthesia. This precedental court decision is a great step toward eliminating the unnecessary pain and suffering that some animals experience each day of their short lives.

Let me clarify something: I eat meat. However, I want to know that the animal I just ate had the opportunity to lead whatever life would make it most happy before it died. I don’t think many farm animals would be very happy about sitting in a confined space at all times. I think they would be most happy living in a place where they could roam around, and interact with one another. I also think they should be humanely killed.

In my university’s “history of man’s relationship to nature” class, we read about one Native American tribe’s perspective on hunting and killing animals. When a hunter killed a deer, he thanked the spirit of the deer for giving up its life to provide sustenance of the hunter and his family. The hunter considered the deer’s death, and its body, to be a gift.

Realistically, that deer probably didn’t think of its own death as a gift - it probably didn’t want to die. But I think we must acknowledge the circle of life: the fact that one life, animal or vegetable, must die so that another can thrive. Maybe we should be thankful for any sacrifice one life makes so that we may live, whether or not it is a willing sacrifice. It sounds very cheesy and new-agey, but maybe if we pictured a living, blinking, pecking bird each time we ate chicken, we would develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the streams of life that come and go around us each day.

Perhaps one reason we don’t like to think of our food as having been a conscious organism is a subconscious awareness that it probably didn’t lead a very enjoyable life prior to its demise. This is fixable though, and I’m sincerely glad that there seems to be a growing movement of people who are actively trying to ensure that no animal suffers unnecessarily.

-MJ, aka Kitty Mowmow

PS - I apologize if I offended my vegan/vegetarian audience. Kitty Mowmow’s Animal Expo is designed to be open to a free exchange of ideas and opinions. Those were my opinions, and I am definitely open to hearing yours.

Tagged as: Animals, Deer, Factory Farms, Farm & Ranch, Farming, Legislation, Native Americans, New Jersey, Vegans, Vegetarians