This is what "animal rights" can do to people. Read the initial story first.

Now a little reality injected:


http://www.raising-rabbits.com/animal-cruelty-cases.html



http://jansgiants.blogspot.com/2011/07/house-rabbit-society.html

At this time, this woman's SHOW-LINE fiber rabbits are being busily spayed and neutered! The people who came in and removed her rabbits from a climate-controlled facility, stuffed them into cat/dog carriers (where the rabbits are certainly standing in their own waste) and stacked them into an aluminum horse trailer in JULY, before moving them to a stifling fairgrounds building, are now begging the public to help them FEED them! Wow, what a victory for those poor rabbits! This can happen to any one of us who raises whatever kind of animals - dogs, cats , you name it!

This is scary... I have had people "report" me on at least 2 occasions because I was "abusing" my dog. Both times my dog had food water a shelter. Both times my dog would have been taken but I was nearby to tell them they had no right to take my dog.

just about as bad as AC being called because it was it got too cold in Virginia for a dog, a Malamute in a back yard doghouse. YOU CAN'T make it too cold for a Malamute in the Piedmont of Va.

The general public has absolutely no clue about animal husbandry, 95% have no idea -- even in the midwest, where livestock can be seen on any short drive.

Very scary! I've had animal control called on me a couple of times for "animal abuse". Once for walking a lab in a gentle warm spring rain and the other time for asking Hobbes, who is an 80 lb dog, to pull a bag of dogfood home in a radio flyer wagon with a proper harness on. Both times, thankfully our AC officer was more than willing to leave laughing after they saw what was Really going on.

 Quote: betty landercasp

The general public has absolutely no clue about animal husbandry, 95% have no idea -- even in the midwest, where livestock can be seen on any short drive.

Yep! I get asked the craziest questions about dairy cows like "Why do dairy cows have to spend their whole lives pregnant and why don't they ever take the milkers off? You know that's abusive right?" Yes, I do and that is just one of the many reasons that neither is done- ever! There are 6 large dairies within 45 minutes of here that have public tours monthly, yet the propoganda is readily beleived over common sense and first hand knowledge. We are fighting an uphill battle with the AR crazies. (not to be confused with animal welfare enthusiasts)

They'll get my rabbits when they pry them from my cold, dead hands...

I can wig out on this topic.
The PUBLIC DEMAND FOR CHEAP MEAT drives modern Ag, its volume, what cruelty that does exist. The bumper sticker, "Don't talk with your mouth full" is dead on IMO. If you need hambuger/chicken/turkey/milk at <$2/lb there is only one way to raise it.
Cows are so much happier in modern dairies than they were in the old stanchion lock-ups, it's like they are at the beach lying in their sand beds. Sure it sucks they don't get out on pasture, but pasture is not always great, it gets hot,muddy,cold,rocky and there are flies,which cattle despise.
50 yrs ago lots of folks had experience caring for a cow, cleaning her 70LBs of manure each day, carrying her 50 lbs of hay, tried to keep her clean and happy and dry. Try that with 200 cows. It's got to be a factory, there is no other way.
Now, if any modern american would like to come after "work" and fork manure, put away hay, curry cows, feed cows, milk cows,check cows for heat, mow weeds or DO ANY OF IT we could make changes in agriculture. But people prefer to go to the gym,stop off at McDonalds, and go home and watch TV.
Unemployment? Not Mexicans. A guy has come here and helped after his job at the berry patch (after 5 pm) and worked til dark all week this week. He just showed up. I'm paying him $10 hr. cash. I've had an ad in the paper for a month. NOBODY answered. I offered $15/hr plus lunch to put away hay. NO TAKERS.
Jeez, I'm sorry I went nuts here. But, IMO, it's lazy obese Americans that are the source factory AG.

Betty, you're right. I'm not 50 yrs old but as soon as I was able, I was up early and had to gather eggs and help milk a cow or two by hand before I went to school as long as I lived on my grandparents farm. Our teachers were shocked and thought it was horrible but it was our life. I actually missed scooping manure and pitching hay.

Yup. People in America are very used to cheap food - NOW! Cheap food requires factory farming.

I don't like it, but until the fast food mentality factory farms aren't going to change.

 Quote:

Now, if any modern american would like to come after "work" and fork manure, put away hay, curry cows, feed cows, milk cows,check cows for heat, mow weeds or DO ANY OF IT we could make changes in agriculture. But people prefer to go to the gym,stop off at McDonalds, and go home and watch TV.

Absolutely!!

FWIW, my first job at the age of 13 was picking blueberries. 5-6 days a week, 8-10 hours a day outdoors in the middle of the summer. I did that for 5 summers...