Animal Welfare Forum

Animal Welfare Forum Gives Inside Look at Trend
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 11:10am. Chris Torres Staff Writer

HERSHEY, Pa. — They all came with differing views and opinions on what animal welfare is and how it should be addressed.

For the hosts of last week’s animal welfare forum in Hershey, bringing together some of the nation’s influential voices on the subject was a chance for the Pennsylvania ag community to get an inside view of who is driving animal welfare discussions in America.More than 100 people gathered at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center to hear four panelists talk about animal welfare and give their opinions on what should be done to address the issue.

“Science and Ethics: Farm Animal Welfare in Modern Food Production” was the name of the forum co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association and PennAg Industries.

Russell Redding, Pennsylvania’s deputy ag secretary, moderated the forum between Dr. Bernard Rollin, professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University; Dr. Gail Golab, an animal welfare specialist with the American Veterinary Association; Jim Reynolds, chief of service for dairy production medicine at the University of California; and Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Read More

An interesting question was posed to Wayne Pacelle at this forum on how much his organization has invested in developing alternatives to the agricultural practices they despise. His answer was “none”. They certainly are trying to tell agriculture what we can’t do, but not what we can. This is a tell tale sign of their commitment to eliminating animal agriculture from this country.