CA Woman Wants to Take Farmer's Choice Away

Pacific Grove woman fights for humane treatment of animals
By KEVIN HOWE Herald Staff Writer

Her family has ranched in the Sacramento Valley since the 1850s when they fed the Gold Rush miners with their beef cattle and crops.

"Family farming," she said, "has been part of my upbringing."

So it's no surprise Zamzow takes an unsentimental, but hard-line stance for the humane treatment of farm animals.

She and other volunteers completed a campaign this year to gather nearly 800,000 signatures on petitions to place the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Zamzow was singled out by Erin Williams, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States' factory farming campaign for her work in gathering hundreds of signatures for the ballot initiative, making her one of the top campaigners in Monterey County. Read More

The California initiative is about choice, not science or animal welfare. HSUS and people like Zamzow want to take away producers options for raising animals, which in turn could force many to quit raising animals altogether. Research has shown no benefit to the animal’s welfare by not using these techniques, so all this will accomplish is to take away the individual freedoms of producers.

New Hampshire says No to Cage Ban

From Feedstuffs:

A bill in the New Hampshire Legislature supported by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and would have banned cage-egg production systems failed in the state's House Agriculture Committee on a 16-0 vote. It was subsequently voted down in the full House by voice vote last month.

Meanwhile, a bill that would have banned the production and sale of foie gras in Maryland was rejected by the Maryland Legislature last month. The bill was supported by the Baltimore (Md.) Animal Rights Coalition. Link

Not only did the House Ag Committee of New Hampshire say no to this bill, they said heck no by voting unanimously against it. We will have to wait and see what the HSUS response will be.