Confined animal bill corralled in committee
By MetroWest Staff
04/03/2008
K.C. Mason
DENVER — Under threat of a petition drive for a ballot question, Colorado lawmakers and state Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp are moving forward with a bill to increase regulations on confined animals that are raised for pork and veal.
Senate Bill 201, sponsored by Dist. 6 Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, would prohibit the confinement of gestating sows or calves raised for veal in a way that does not allow the animal to stand up, lie down, and turn around without touching the enclosure’s sides.
“My concern is to avert a ballot initiative, which I feel this does,” Stulp said during testimony last week before the Senate Agriculture Committee. “This recognizes the need … to address future husbandry issues and hopefully get out ahead of the curve.” Read More
Colorado is trying to prevent a ballot measure, proposed by the HSUS, by passing a bill through the legislature. The decision not to fight it out at the ballots was due largely to the fact the HSUS has been very successful in ballot measures and also the amount of money they had committed to the measure. While ag could not have gone dollar for dollar with the HSUS, they have something more powerful than money, and that is the positive story of modern production agriculture. I only wish they would have used that more to their advantage.
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