As an owner of a mixed rescue lab, four German Shorthair Pointers, and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel I have found the thread interesting and informative. Thank you for posting your opinons on the subject.
I thought I would not just include the current dog legislation but ask each of you to consider legislation pending which affects agriculture in the same way as the dog legislation is.
First, to keep my post shorter please read my bio to understand more about why I'm writing this.
I'm new to the board, joined with my first ACOT Crop which so ROCKED!
First, in the back of your minds you each know it is the American Farmer and Rancher who provides food to your table. I'm a rancher. If you actually sit and think about your lifestyle is derived directly from the American Farmer and Rancher. There is no other segment of our economy that is the sole reason we enjoy our lifestyle then our country's producers of food. You might be shaking your head at this point. Remember hearing of the food riots in some third world countries last summer when gas prices were high. If your American Farmer and Rancher wasn't blessed with the best climate and best soils in the world we couldn't feed our country plus most of the rest of the world. When one goes hungry all one can think of is putting food in your stomach. None of you has to worry about that until....
Until groups like HSUS and PETA enter the picture. My blog tells my story of being a rancher. I also spend time hoping readers of my Blog will come to realize how dangerous HSUS and PETA is to your food supply. Here it is in a nutshell. Not only are we blessed in climate and good soils, we are blessed with the safest and cheapest food system in the world. Regulations in Europe have caused Europe from going to be self-sufficient in feeding themselves to only able to produce 60% of their food. Thirty years ago I entered college as an Agriculture major. At that time we were not only able to feed ourselves, we were able to feed the entire world. We can no longer do this. With a projected 6.7 billion people and the population growing at an unbelievable rate, all of these people need to eat. We can not make more land.
The outright lie HSUS tells you is we can feed the country on a Vegan diet. Wrong! The land currently available for crop, fruit and vegatable production is not enough land to produce enough food to feed our citizens without meat production. Most of your cattle is not grown on land suitable for plant production foods. It would be a shame with the already passed legislation and pending legislation to see a legacy of true hunger in this country. We as a nation already contribute to world hunger. We are a country who wants grapes, blueberries, etc. year round. We desire coffee and cocoa for chocolate. These last two aren't food products we have to have in our diet and production of food is taken out to grow a cash crop for the developed countries. Only Kona Coffee is grown in the US, Hawaii.
In November, California passed Prop 2. Prop 2 sponsored by HSUS said that veal calves, chickens and pigs must be able to stand, turn around, and spread their limbs. They call people like me a factory farmer. You might think this is great. Here is the ramifications to your bank account. Chicken farmers who produce eggs will have to shut down. Prop 2 was passed telling the public it would only be an increase of 12 cents a dozen. Wrong again! It would cost the chicken farmers a $500,000.00 retrofit to the new standards for each egg laying operation. You might think for a large operation they would be able to retrofit their barns. Again wrong. Agriculture operations run on a 5% or less margin. There is no other industry in the US that would run their business on that margin because of the risk. Then enter the California Assembly, there is a bill pending that if eggs imported into the state will have to conform to Prop 2 except for liquid and powdered eggs. Whoops, who do you think pays for the transportation cost, yep the consumer. And gee, did anyone think about the increase cost in your taxes to take care of those on Food Stamps, again the taxpayer. The cost in just laying farms, 3500 jobs lost. Understand to the current confinement systems are safer and healthier for both the animals and humans who consume meat. This has all been determined by research. HSUS would try to tell you otherwise.
Ohio and Missouri are next on the list with their own Prop 2's coming down the pike by 2010. North Carolina isn't far behind. Ya'll think, and think hard what HSUS, PETA and AFL want to do to your food systems in this country. Help your American Farmer and Rancher to put a stop to what they are doing. It is frightening to me. We as a industry are afraid of competing with a $500,000,000 dollar budget they have. When they are done with chicken and pork producers they will come after me the beef producer. If you give to them, STOP! CALL your Representatives and Senators and tell them not to support their legislation or tell them to change the way a Proposition can be put on the ballot.
Then one last thing for each of you to remember. HSUS and PETA are responsible for legislation before Congress right now that will put horse owners in the same position as Dog owners currently have problems with over population. If you were to talk to my brother-in-law who is the animal control officer for Anderson County, Texas the increase in abandoned horses was up over 300% last year and the county was loosing money for their care and then sale. That means your tax dollars.
Your welcome to read my blog....I'm very opinionated there. I've attempted to tone it down here. I tell my story and tell the story of the lies HSUS, PETA, and AFL. I encourage you to read some of the other Agriculture blogs who do the same. Our story is one of a deep abiding love for our rural lifestyle on the farm and ranch. If you sit and think about it, would you invest over $500,000 to be a rancher, pork or chicken producer to earn average $79,000 a year. Would you invest over $2,000,000 as a farmer to earn average $79,000 a year. I don't think so. We do because we love what we do, it's that simple.
http://texassantagertrudis.blogspot.com
And yes, my scrapbooking is there to help tell my story of what I love so dearly, my life as a cattle producer. It is my greatest hope you will come to love me for what I do for my fellow citizens, I help to provide food.
On some other boards something like this would be removed or closed by mods and even cause for banning if the person was not previously an active poster (no I don't know the specific rules as I haven't been a mod, and if she'd already been active for several weeks posting elsewhere that's different than if this was the 1st post). I'm not saying it should be that way here (I"m glad it's not!), I just found it interesting that no one else had mentioned that aspect of the post.
