Missouri governor signs compromise on voter-approved Prop. B, 'Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act'

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri officials pushed through new regulations for the state's dog breeders in a flurry of legislative activity Wednesday that started with Gov. Jay Nixon signing one bill repealing sections of a voter-approved dog-breeding law and ended with the governor signing another measure that implemented a deal between dog breeders and welfare groups.

The maneuvering was needed to pass a compromise on new rules for Missouri dog breeders that was brokered by Nixon's administration and supported by several state-based agriculture and animal-welfare groups. Nixon called the new legislation "a dramatic, important, significant step" that would improve the care of dogs while ensuring breeders can continue to operate. The industry has an estimated $1-billion impact in Missouri.

In the end, Nixon and lawmakers eliminated parts of the "Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act" passed last November by voters, including a limit of 50 breeding dogs per business. Other portions were changed. The new law seeks potential middle ground on the specifics of the living-space requirements, and it gives breeders more time to comply with the new rules.

Iowa agriculture committees approve bill that would limit animal groups' undercover investigations

DES MOINES, Iowa — Angered by repeated releases of secretly filmed videos claiming to show the mistreatment of farm animals, Iowa's agriculture industry is pushing legislation that would make it illegal for animal rights activists to produce and distribute such images.

Agriculture committees in the Iowa House and Senate have approved a bill that would prohibit such recordings and punish people who take agriculture jobs only to gain access to animals to record their treatment. Proposed penalties include fines of up to $7,500 and up to five years in prison. Votes by the full House and Senate have not yet been set.

Doug Farquhar, program director for environmental health at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Iowa would be the first state to approve such restrictions but Florida is considering similar legislation. The Iowa measure was introduced after a number of groups released videos showing cows being shocked, pigs beaten and chicks ground up alive.

"It's very transparent what agribusiness is attempting to do here," said Bradley Miller, national director of the Humane Farming Assn., a California-based group dedicated to protecting farm animals from abuse. "They're trying to intimidate whistleblowers and put a chill on legitimate anti-cruelty investigations. Clearly the industry feels that it has something to hide or it wouldn't be going to these extreme and absurd lengths."

Investigators recommend changes at Virginia factory farm where Humane Society alleges abuse against pigs

RICHMOND, Va. — An independent investigative team is recommending changes aftermistreatment of breeding pigs at a Virginia farm operated by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork producer.

The recommendations include reviewing training programs and euthanasia procedures, initiating unannounced inspections by third parties, and increasing the number of site visits by corporate management of the Smithfield, Va.-based company.

Smithfield released the independent investigators' recommendations late Wednesday and said each will immediately be addressed, although the statement did not say if or when they would implemented.

The Humane Society of the United States last week released results from an undercover investigation that showed breeding pigs abused and crammed into small gestation crates at the Waverly farm of livestock production subsidiary Murphy-Brown.

Photos and video from the Humane Society's investigation showed about 1,000 large female pigs crammed into metal crates that severely limited their ability to move. The pigs stay in the crates, also called sow stalls, during their four-month pregnancies. Afterward, they are moved for about three weeks to a crate large enough to nurse their piglets before being artificially inseminated and placed back into the gestation crates.

Pigs subject to abuse at Virginia factory farm, Humane Society of the United States says

RICHMOND, Va. — The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday that an undercover worker at a farm owned by the world's largest pork producer saw breeding pigs abused and crammed into small gestation crates.

The animal welfare organization released the results of a monthlong undercover investigation at a Waverly, Va., factory farm owned by Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc. Murphy-Brown is Smithfield's livestock production subsidiary and is the world's largest producer of pigs for slaughter. The Humane Society called on Smithfield to renew its commitment to phasing out the crates.

Photos and video from the investigation showed about 1,000 large female pigs crammed into metal crates that severely limited their ability to move. The pigs stay in the crates, also called sow stalls, during their four-month pregnancies. Afterward, they are moved for about three weeks to a crate large enough to nurse their piglets before being artificially inseminated and placed back into the gestation crates.

Seven states have passed laws banning gestation crates, and the European Union is phasing out their use by 2013. However, the crates are legal in Virginia.

Michael Vick tells high schoolers 'I think I'm being used by God'

The Michael Vick partnership with the Humane Society's "End Dogfighting" campaign made stops at two high schools in Connecticut on Tuesday to encourage America's youth to be kind to animals.

The Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback says that kids are more likely to listen to what he says about animal cruelty because they've seen where he has come from -- namely 18 months in prison -- due to his activity with Bad Newz Kennels.

Before his arrest for racketeering Vick said he was blind to animal rights, but he now sees the light. "I didn’t really care what people felt about animals," Vick told the students about his lack of emotion while involved in dogfighting with pit bulls. "I didn’t care about the welfare of animals."

But that ignorance has been turned into a blessing from on high, the NFL star said, which includes a tightening of legal restrictions across the country once the spotlight turned to lax laws surrounding dogfighting and minimal fines. "I think I’m being used by God," Vick said, "because all the laws have changed since my incident."

"In my opinion he means what he says and this is a healing process for him" Caleb Levy told News 8 in New Haven, Conn., after Vick spoke to Wilbur Cross High School.

Tea Partiers barking mad over puppy-mill humane measure in Missouri

The state of Missouri is known throughout the humane community as "puppy mill central," a state which by some reckonings is home to nearly a third of the nation's wretched breeding factories that churn out litter after litter of puppies that can be high-priced and sometimes less than healthy, from mothers that are kept like brood sows and wind up exhausted and ailing after delivering endless litters -- I know; I've adopted one or two of such poor exploited ladies.

Dog-loving groups have been hopeful that Missouri's Prop. B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, would help to put a stop to some of this, by requiring commercial breeders with more than 10 breeding females who produce puppies for the pet trade give those dogs clean facilities, enough food and water and exercise, and what I would call decent intervals between pregnancies.

Simple, right?

Well, not according to some. As reported on Talking Points Memo, Tea Partiers are claiming that this is a manifestation of the Humane Society's sinister plan. Some, including people who either can't read or won't read -- to paraphrase Mark Twain, the latter has the same disadvantage as the former -- are applying Tea Party politics to this, declaring that the Missouri measure saving animals from misery and exploitation is part of a "radical" agenda.

The group calls itself the Alliance for Truth -- don't you love the grandiose labels these groups bestow on themselves? -- and one member, astonishingly, told the TPM site that Prop. B supporters "don't like animals."

Humane Society of the United States urges South Carolina to ban practice of 'bear baying'

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A declawed, defanged bear is chained to a stake as hunting dogs bark and snap, trying to force the bear to stand on its hind legs. The training exercise called bear baying is intended to make the bears easier to shoot in the wild and it's allowed only in South Carolina.

Armed with new undercover video of four such events, the Humane Society of the United States is pressuring state officials to explicitly outlaw the practice, which the organization says is effectively banned in every other state. Animal rights advocates say it's cruel to the nearly defenseless bears and harms them psychologically.

Hunters say the exercise, popular in the state's hilly northwestern corner, helps them train their dogs on what to do when they come across a bear during a hunt.

But John Goodwin, the Humane Society's chief animal fighting expert, calls it "bear baiting" -- a centuries-old bloodsport that is more for spectators' entertainment than instruction for dogs on what to do when they encounter wild bears.

"This isn't about training dogs. This is a competition," Goodwin said at a news conference in Columbia on Monday in conjunction with the public release of the videos. "If this is their idea of training a dog for hunting, then they're sending that dog on a suicide mission."

Gov. Schwarzenegger signs bill to require out-of-state egg producers to comply with Proposition 2 space requirements for egg-laying hens

Beginning in 2015, all whole eggs sold in the state of California -- even those shipped in from other states -- must come from chickens that are housed in a way that complies with the requirements set out in Proposition 2, the farm-animal welfare bill approved by California voters in 2008.

On Tuesday, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill mandating that all whole eggs intended for human consumption in the state be produced by chickens that are able to fully extend their limbs, stand up, lie down and spread their wings without touching the side of their enclosure or other birds.

"In other words: California will become a cage-free state," Humane Society of the United States president and CEO Wayne Pacelle, whose group heavily supported the move, wrote on his blog.

The bill, A.B. 1437, was authored by Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael); it received the support of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Sierra Club California and the Center for Food Safety, among other groups, in addition to the Humane Society.

On its way through the state legislature, A.B. 1437 sparked a flap from the Assn. of California Egg Farmers, which said at one point that it would oppose its passage unless it was modified to spell out exactly how much space was required by Proposition 2.

June in animal news: Five questions with Humane Society of the United States leader Wayne Pacelle

We're asking leaders in the animal protection movement to give us their insights into current issues affecting animals. Here, Humane Society of the United States president and chief executive Wayne Pacelle shares his take on the month of June in animal news and what animal lovers should watch for in July. Pacelle's responses represent his own views and not necessarily ours.

Unleashed: What do you view as the most important development in animal news to happen in June?

Wayne Pacelle: A landmark agreement for the benefit of animals was reached in Ohio. Signature-gatherers for Ohioans for Humane Farms were certain to qualify a ballot measure to curb some of the most abusive practices on factory farms, similar to the ballot measure that California voters approved in November 2008.

Gov. Ted Strickland is a friend to animal protection and agriculture groups, and he pulled us together to try to reach an agreement. The agreement was driven by HSUS's reform agenda, and in the end, we settled on eight landmark reforms in the state in exchange for us holding off on submitting our measure for 2010. (Signatures do not expire in Ohio, so if the agreement is not honored, the signatures we've collected remain valid and we can pursue the measure next year.)

Californians are familiar with the basic issues, since Proposition 2 in 2008 received more "yes" votes than any other citizen initiative in state history. That ballot measure set in motion a phase-out of some abusive confinement practices on factory farms -- an idea that is widely supported by food retailers and family farmers in addition to consumers and animal advocates.

May in animal news: Five questions with Humane Society of the United States leader Wayne Pacelle

This month, Unleashed is debuting a new feature: Five questions about the issues that matter to animal lovers with leaders in the animal protection movement. Here's Humane Society of the United States president and chief executive Wayne Pacelle's take on the most important animal news to happen in May and what animal advocates should watch for in the coming month.

Unleashed: What do you view as the most important development in animal news to happen in May?

Wayne Pacelle: There was a damning federal report about the United States Department of Agriculture's failure to enforce rules to protect dogs at puppy mills and a gruesome farm animal cruelty case in Ohio, but the tragedy in the Gulf now has overshadowed almost everything. The suffering of animals is brought into America's living rooms every day, and it's plain that the consequences are only going to get worse and will last for an awfully long time.

At the moment, BP and its contractors are handling animal rescue at the scene and limiting access to the water and beaches. But The HSUS has a team of experts going in to make sure that animals remain a top priority in this disaster. We will help in any way we can to make sure of it, and we lend our voice to those who insist on better safeguards in the future.