West Valley View
June 16, 2006
Opinion editorial

By Jim Klinker

New York-based Farm Sanctuary has an extreme political agenda they hope to impose on Arizona. We’re talking about out-of-state animal rights activists and the ballot measure they want us to support in November. Their goals have little to do with protecting animals and the environment and everything to do with reducing production and consumption of meat products grown by Arizona and American farmers.

Do not be fooled, hogwash is hogwash. The hogwash they are feeding you is that Arizona farmers do not treat their animals humanely or protect the environment because of modern and safer animal confinement practices. They will play on your emotions. They ignore decades of sound science. And they smear anyone who doesn’t share their radical views, all to promote their extreme animal rights agenda.

They did it in Florida in 2002. Now they’ve come to Arizona.

Your U.S. agriculture is the envy of the world. Arizona farmers and ranchers produce safe, wholesome meat, cheese and milk for all of us. Modern animal-raising techniques are humane and based on decades of science, research and real-world experience. The reality is that farm animals have to be treated humanely or they wouldn’t produce the food you and I enjoy.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. A check with the American Veterinary Association website (www.avma.org) shows vets believe the way animals are raised in Arizona today is humane, safe and does not put the animal under stress. Add to that, our one large hog operation targeted by the liberation radicals has a clean environmental bill of health from our state Department of Environmental Quality. The activists’ initiative here in Arizona is a solution in search of a problem.

Yesterday’s farmers had to deal with extreme cold, unbearable heat, unsanitary conditions and animals fighting for food and water, often harming one another. Today in Arizona, producers provide housing that protects their animals from extreme weather. Farm animals are fed diets designed by nutrition specialists. Their water is kept clean and their facilities are constantly washed and sanitized. They are under constant veterinary care and supervision.

The result: the safest, highest quality and most desirable food products in the world are available to American consumers for a reasonable price.

Unfortunately for Arizona voters, none of these facts matter to groups like Farm Sanctuary and other fringe groups like PETA and the Animal Liberation Front. Their national political effort is to impose their no-meat lifestyle on you and me. These groups are some of the largest, cash-rich organizations in the country and they will stop at nothing.

In Florida’s 2002 election, they duped voters into granting constitutional rights to pigs. Pigs! Farm Sanctuary helped bankroll the Florida campaign illegally. The group was charged with 210 counts of campaign fraud and paid a $50,000 fine. The initiative shut down the only two hog farms in the state, both family operated. So much for their claim they are protecting the small family farm.

The radical groups’ agenda is to spread this initiative across the country, state-by-state. It won’t take too many states before livestock production is reduced in the U.S. and the food we eat is coming from outside our borders, largely out of sight of our U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors.

We believe when Arizona voters know the facts, they will vote ‘NO’ on this farm animal liberation hogwash, sending a signal to the animal rights activists that they do not have the right to buy an election and tell us we shouldn’t enjoy meat at our dinner table.

For more information, go to www.azFarmersRanchers.com.

Jim Klinker is executive secretary of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation and chairman of the Campaign for Arizona Farmers and Ranchers.