August 2008

NJ Court Helps Animals

Paws Up!

To the New Jersey Supreme Court for ordering the state’s Department of Agriculture to re-assess its standards of farm animal care.*

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) worked for several years up to 2004 to revise its standards of care and treatment for millions of sentient beings raised and killed for food within the state.  While the revision process had been an enormous opportunity to set unprecedentedly high-standards of care for farm animals, the NJDA ultimately approved inhumane farming practices, including:

• Use of pig gestation and veal calf crates
• Forced molting of poultry birds
• Transportation of ill and injured cattle
• Mutilation of animals, including tail-docking, castration without anesthesia, and de-beaking

While the NJDA defends these cruel practices as “routine” to the farm industry, NHES feels such cruelties have no place in our society.  In deed, if these practices were applied to other animals protected by the state’s anti-cruelty statues, which farm animals notably do not enjoy, the perpetrators of such standards would be taken to criminal court.

Thankfully, the New Jersey Supreme Court, in reviewing a lawsuit brought against the NJDA by several animal welfare organizations, found that many of the farming standards approved in 2004 should not be upheld!  The court has ordered the NJDA to re-evaluate, and potentially revise, its standards of care to ensure the humane treatment of farm animals.

Help New Jersey Farm Animals!

Thank the New Jersey Supreme Court for ordering the state Agriculture Department to re-assess its standards of care for farm animals:

New Jersey Supreme Court

Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex

Office of the Clerk

P.O. Box 970

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

Send polite letters to the NJDA urging the agency to eliminate “routine” farming practices that inflict cruelty and suffering upon millions of sentient beings:

New Jersey Department of Agriculture

Mr. Charles M. Kuperus

Secretary of Agriculture

P.O. Box 330

Trenton, New Jersey 08625

Sources:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-31-093.asp

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/NEWS01/807310379/1006/news01

*While the court’s decision took place on July 31, 2008, NHES felt this great news is deserving of a spot in our August Paws UP posting!