Support Passage of New York State Assembly Bill 8163 - Reform Factory Farming Practices

New York Assembly Bill 8163 - This bill will phase-out pig gestation crates, veal crates and hen battery cages by 2015, and will prohibit any person from tethering or confining any pig during pregnancy, any calf raised for veal, or egg-laying hen who is kept on a farm in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up and fully extending its limbs and turning around freely. Violations of the law will be punishable by imprisonment for a period not to exceed one year and/or fines up to $1,000.

Harsh confinement within confinement crates and cages deprives calves, pigs and chickens of the ability to engage in natural behavior. Animals confined in such circumstances experience extensive and significant physical and psychological trauma. Nationwide, about one million calves raised for veal and six million breeding sows (female pigs) suffer nearly their entire lives inside tiny crates so small the animals can't even turn around. Veal factory farmers separate calves from their mothers within the first few days of birth and cram them into individual crates or stalls, tethered by their necks. Inside these enclosures, the calves can barely move.

Gestation crates board pregnant pigs for nearly their entire four-month pregnancy. These tiny metal crates are not even large enough for the pig to move or perform natural behaviors such as cleaning themselves or simply turning around. New York has about 13,000 breeding sows.

Battery cages used to confine hens make it impossible for them to spread their wings or turn around. This severely restricts the hen's ability to engage in basic natural activities including stretching their wings, turning around, perching and dust-bathing. Cage-free systems would enable hens to lay their eggs in nests, walk, and spread their wings, all of which would significantly reduce the suffering, stress and injuries associated with severe crowding in cages. In New York there are about 4,000,000 egg laying hens, the vast majority of which are confined in battery cages. Most hens spend their entire lives in a space about the size of a sheet of copy paper.

This ban is not without precedent. In 2002, Florida voters stepped up and amended the state constitution, banning gestation crates in a 55-45% vote. In 2006, Arizona voters banned both gestation crates and veal crates in a 62-38% vote. In 2007, the Oregon legislature banned gestation crates and in 2008, the Colorado legislature banned both gestation crates and veal crates. Last November, California voters passed Proposition 2 which banned gestation crates, veal crates and battery cages by a 63.5-36.5% vote. And in May of 2009, Maine banned both gestation and veal crates, effective 2011. The entire European Union has also banned both veal crates and gestation crates, effective 2007 and 2013, respectively.

Other states considering bans this year include Illinois, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Read the entire New York bill here . . .

Assembly Bill 8163 Faces An Uphill Battle

New York state does not permit either ballot initiatives or statewide propositions. AB8163 must pass both houses of the state legislature and the Governor before it becomes law.

The legislation was introduced by Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) in May of 2009 and quickly gained 15 other sponsors, primarily from New York City and its suburbs. Then it was was referred to the Assembly's powerful Agriculture Committee. The Agriculture Committee is made up of 23 Assembly Members, primarily from upstate New York. Two of the downstate sponsors of the bill (Linda Rosenthal and Alan Maisel, D-Brooklyn) and one upstate sponsor (John McEneny, D-Albany) sit on the Agriculture Committee. Click links for a list of Sponsors and Agriculture Committee members.

The Committee is chaired by Assemblyman William Magee (D-Nelson). Its ranking Republican is Clifford Crouch (R-Guilford). According to the New York Farm Bureau (a trade group representing New York farmers' and ranchers' economic interests), it believes that Magee and Crouch will not support the legislation. New York Farm Bureau Government Relations Director Julie Suarez says, "New York agricultural producers shouldn't be too worried." And according to Farm & Dairy News, with Magee and Crouch in charge of the Agriculture Committee, New York farmers may "breathe a sigh of relief."

Assembly Members Magee and Crouch Represent the Interests of Big Agribusiness

It is no wonder that factory farms and big agribusiness think that they can relax and let Magee and Crouch take care of them. Agribusiness has taken care of Magee and Crouch for many years. The New York Farm Bureau has been paying thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to the "Friends of Bill Magee" and to the "Friends of Cliff Crouch." Magee and Crouch have also taken money from Monsanto. Crouch's campaign is fed by the American Rendering Company, and both Magee and Crouch are happy to take money, lots of money, from a New York Law firm named Bond, Schoeneck & King. The firm boasts twelve attorneys in its "Agribusiness" department, and is a registered lobbyist for companies involved in livestock waste management, seed distribution, and big dairy. Why do lobbyists give contributions to legislators? It is certainly not because legislators vote against their interests. Sources: http://www.elections.state.ny.us (campaign contribution data) and www.nyintegrity.org (lobby registration data).

Additionally, there are eight large laying hen operations in New York State housing about 4,000,000 birds. Two of those are located in Assembly Districts where members sit on the Agriculture Committee. Those members are Aileen Gunther (98th) and Al Stirpe (121st). For a complete list of the laying hen CAFOs, including information about each, click here.

There are two veal calf CAFOs in New York State each with over 1,000 calves. One sits in Genesee County in Agriculture Committee Member Stephen Hawley's assembly district. Hawley is former president of the Genesee County Farm Bureau. The other is in Livingston County. For a list of the veal calf CAFOs, including information about each, click here.

There are numerous swine CAFOs in New York, largely on the western side of the state and situated within a few counties and assembly districts. For a list of swine CAFOs, including information about each, click here.

There is wide support for passage of this legislation.

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York evaluated the proposed legislation after its introduction in May of 2009. Its Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals (LIPTA), speaking for the New York City Bar Association recommended passage of AB-8163. LIPTA said, "[t]he changes proposed by this piece of legislation, which allow for a gradual phase-out of these confinement methods between now and January 1, 2015 would require relatively modest changes, but would result in an alleviation of the needless discomfort and suffering of calves, sows and hens which would otherwise be kept in these extreme confining conditions." The report also noted that "prohibiting producers from keeping calves, sows, and hens in these extreme conditions would result in more humane treatment of these animals, by reducing the physical stress attendant to such confinement." To read the entire report, click here.

The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production recommends the phase-out within ten years of all intensive confinement systems that restrict natural movement and normal behaviors, including swine gestation crates, restrictive swine farrowing crates, cages used to house multiple egg-laying chickens (commonly referred to as battery cages) and the tethering or individual housing of calves for the production of white veal. The report stated, "[i]ndustrial livestock production systems have often deleteriously affected the welfare of virtually every species of farm animal in the United States, including all forms of poultry (chickens, turkey, ducks and geese), dairy cows, veal calves, swine sheep and lambs, and raise serious ethical questions regarding the way in which these animals are treated. Read either the Executive Summary of the Report or the Complete Report (these are large files).

Assembly Bill 8163 is also supported by the Humane Society of the United States, the New York State Humane Association (NYSHA) and Farm Sanctuary. The Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), an 80,000 member, non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization issued a letter of strong support for AB8163.

There is also broad public support. A 2004 Ohio State University survey found that 81 percent of respondents felt that the well-being of livestock is as important as that of pets. In a May 2003 poll, Gallup reported that 62 percent of Americans support passing strict laws concerning the treatment of farm animals. In the "Nationwide Views on the Treatment of Farm Animals," a Zogby International poll prepared for the Animal Welfare Trust, 82% of respondents agreed that there should be effective laws that protect farm animals against cruelty and abuse. And, according to Eagleton Institute on Politics at Rutgers University, 83% of Respondents said it is cruel to confine calves and pigs to two-foot wide crates, and most respondents agreed that the government should regulate the treatment of farm animals.

According to a Caravan Opinion Research Corporation poll, 92% of respondents strongly disapproved of the housing system for veal calves, 91% disapproved of confinement systems for pigs, and 90% of respondents strongly disapproved of keeping hens in cages that did not provide enough space for hens to stretch their wings. A 2000 Zogby poll revealed that 86.2% of respondents felt in unacceptable to house hens in "wire cages" so small and crowded that hens cannot stretch their wings. 80% of respondents were willing to pay more for eggs treated humanely.

Environmental Issues

Aside from animal welfare issues, Assembly Bill 8163 also addresses pressing environmental issues.

1) Ground application of untreated manure is a common disposal method and an inexpensive alternative to chemical fertilizers. Nitrogen and phosphorus, essential nutrients for plant growth, are present in high concentrations in animal waste. However, ground application of factory farm waste can exceed the ecological capacity of the land to absorb the nutrients (especially during the winter and during rainy seasons). Application of untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters.

2) Waterborne chemical contaminants associated with factory farm facilities include pesticides, heavy metals, and antibiotics and hormones. Pesticides control insect infestations and fungal growth. Heavy metals, especially zinc and copper, are added as micronutrients to the animal diet. Antibiotics are used not only to prevent and treat bacterial infections for animals held in close quarters, but also as growth promoters. Pharmaceuticals, such as tylosin, a macrolide antibiotic widely used for therapeutics (disease treatment) and growth promotion in swine, beef cattle, and poultry, persists in surface waters of agricultural watersheds.

3) It is also recognized that ammonia emissions from livestock contribute significantly to the eutrophication and acidification of soils and waters. Eutrophication is an excessive richness of nutrients in a body of water, mostly nitrates and phosphates from erosion and runoff of surrounding lands, that causes a dense growth of plant life and the death of animal life due to lack of oxygen.

According to Environmental Advocates of New York (EANY), odors from CAFOs can be detected from as far as five to six miles, and more than 160 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and gases have been identified as coming from CAFOs. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are two of the main air pollutants emitted from CAFOs. Prolonged exposure to concentrations of these pollutants, as experienced by neighbors of factory farms can lead to serious and chronic health problems.

Factory farms continue to produce an expanding array of deleterious environmental effects on local and regional water, air, and soil resources.

Public Health Issues

An estimated 70% of the antibiotics and other microbial drugs used in the United States are fed to farm animals for non-therapeutic purposes, including (i) growth promotion; and (ii) compensation for crowded, unsanitary, and stressful farming and transportation conditions. Unlike human use of antibiotics, these non-therapeutic uses in animals typically do not require a prescription. To prevent disease outbreaks (and to stimulate faster growth), the hog industry alone adds more than 10 million pounds of antibiotics to its feed, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates.

Large-scale voluntary surveys by the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service over a period of seven years revealed that between 83 and 84 percent of swine farms, cattle feedlots and sheep farms administer antimicrobials in the feed or water for health or growth promotion reasons, and that many of the antimicrobials identified are identical or closely related to drugs used in human medicine, including tetracyclines, macrolides, bacitracin, penicillins and sulfonamides.

Scientific studies confirm that the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in agricultural animals contributes to the development on antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in people.

The United States Geological Survey reports that: (a) antibiotics were present in 48% of the streams tested nationwide; and (b) almost half of the tested streams were downstream from agricultural operations.

The American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture are among the more than 300 organizations representing health, consumer, agricultural, environmental, humane, and other interests that support phasing out non-therapeutic use in farm animals of medically important antibiotics.

What needs to be done? How can you help?

New Yorkers and others need to speak out. If left in the hands of politicians, AB 8163 may not get out the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

1) Contact your state assembly member (click here to search by zip code). Ask your assembly member to formally co-sponsor the bill and thank them if they already have. Sponsorship is particularly important if your assembly member is on the Agriculture Committee (click here for a list of Agriculture members).

2) Contact members of the Agriculture Committee (and be sure to tell them if you are a constituent) and urge them to support the bill through sponsorship and a press release. The Committee has 16 Democrats, 6 Republicans and 1 Independent. The split is more likely to be upstate vs. downstate, instead of Democrat vs. Republican. Reach out to others in their constituencies and ask them to contact committee members. This is very important.

3) Ask people and organizations, especially farmers, ranchers, chefs, restaurant owners, non-profit organizations, celebrities, politicians, veterinarians, journalists, authors, environmentalists, business owners and the like to publicly come out and support the bill either by a letter on their company or personal letterhead or via an official communication that can be reproduced showing their support for passage of the bill. The bigger the name, the better.

4) Ask your village or town to pass a resolution supporting Assembly Bill 8163. The resolution would be non-binding, but it would demonstrate a strong show of support for factory farm reform.

5) Write letters to your local media (newspapers, magazines, TV) and ask them to print the letter or to assign a reporter to cover the bill. (A sample "Community View" published in the Journal News on July 15, 2009)

6) Write to us and voice your support along with any thoughts you have on how to promote passage of this bill.

7) Check back on the site often for updates.

Thank you,
Rick Tannenbaum
The Hilltop Initiative -- Building Coalitions
Valley Cottage, NY
(917) 689-1799
rick@ab8163.com