Over
the years, I have become more and more disenchanted with our government. I have
long ago felt that the U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE was a sham. I rarely
heard or
read any concerns for the fish and animals themselves. I felt they only cared
about people
who fished or hunted and the money that fishing and hunting licenses would
bring
their agency. In the meantime our wild animals and fish were suffering because of
their neglect.
In Monika's comment today at the Humane Society of the U.S.' site re the
recent expose of Farm Animal Torture at Federal Labs- she reminded us that yet another
supposed animal welfare government entity -- the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT whose task was suppose to 'manage' and protect our wild horses and burros fails to do
so. It is this very agency which destroys our herds and inflicts terrible suffering to
them during their
all too many round up/stampedes. (And too many of these horses end up
being snapped up by "meat men" who sell them for slaughter to Mexico and Canada.)
And now -thanks to Michael Moss of the New York Times, we learned about
another shameful government entity --THE U.S. MEAT ANIMAL RESEARCH CENTER
(USMARC). Here, per The Humane Society of the US, ghastly experiments were conducted
on farm animals at a USDA facility in Nebraska.
HSUS has succinctly described this horrible misuse of our farm animals as
well as misuse of taxpayer money:
"The USMARC has received nearly $200 million dollars from government
coffers since 2006, clandestinely doing the research and development of the factory farming
lobby. Some examples of experiments at the center include researchers trying to
increase the number of cows who birth twins, increase little sizes of pigs, and breed 'easy
care' lambs. According to the report, at least 6,500 animals died of starvation and many suffered
during exposure to extreme weather or attacks by predators. Several
whistleblowers,
including a veterinarian with 25 year of experience at the facility, shared stories of outrageous
cruelty and neglect there.
Where were our legislators all this time? Were they unaware? If so, why?
This happened in 2006. Surely someone should have done something about this cruelty and
misuse of taxpayer money before now.
So how proud are you to be American? At the HSUS site, Margeaux comments --
"This is no different than experiments done by the Nazis. I'm sick of being a
hostage of the food industry."
Carol wrote: "We are the most despicable animal on this planet...too bad
that man thinks he is entitled to use everything on this earth without regard for its life and
pain and discomfort to them."
The good news. Since farm animals were conspicuously omitted from the
Animal Welfare Act (AWA) -- giving those poor excuses for human beings a reason for going
forward with this cruelty, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) announced he had introduced
H.R. 746, the Animal Welfare in Research Endeavor (AWARE) Act, which would amend the
Animal Welfare
Act (AWA) to finally protect farm animals used for agricultural research at
federal facilities.
He is joined by Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)
and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in introducing this legislation. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and
Sen. Richard Blumental (D-Conn.) have introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
HSUS has asked us to contact our Representative and Senators in Congress to
support the AWARE ACT. (There is a petition on the HSUS site which you can use if you
wish.)
I was horrified to read just how far some government officials will go to
further their selfish and cruel interests. I hope you are too.
And lastly, a reminder from Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS: "If you want to
find examples of
government abuse of power, its misuse of dollars, and its lack of
transparency, look no
farther than the diabolical work of the U.S. MEAT ANIMAL RESEARCH
CENTER."