Lies, Lies, Lies:
Myth of the “Humane” Animal Farm

My Comment arises from the Animals 24-7 article posted on April 20, Farmed animal product certifications ''lack integrity," investigators find. — Karen Davis

(Beth Clifton collage)

Thank you, Animals 24-7, for your coverage. First off, mass-production of living creatures can NEVER be made "humane." It's an insult to the animals to use the word humane to describe their human-imposed suffering and sicknesses in mass-production operations of any size. Back when Whole Foods developed its Compassionate Standards program, appallingly all of the farmed animal advocacy groups, as far as I can recall, signed on to it with the exception of Farm Animal Reform [now Rights] Movement and United Poultry Concerns. How could anyone, I wondered, think that "compassion" had ANYTHING to do with purely profit-seeking enterprises? How could animal protection organizations add insult to the injuries inflicted on chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, aquatic animals and others born strictly to be killed and otherwise used for mass-consumption of their bodies and "products"?

The Global Animal Partnership (GAP) program, referenced in your article as a public relations marketer for Whole Foods, is yet another insult to the chickens and other animals whose body parts are displayed, ignominiously, in meat counters.

Urban/suburban Whole Foods shoppers have no idea what the GAP rating scale of 1 to 5 actually means or looks like in actuality. Most shoppers will choose the cheapest level of "welfare," which at all five levels does not mean that the animals are Faring Well. Quite the contrary.

Mountaire Farms, mentioned in your article, has a big presence on the Delmarva Peninsula comprising Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as in other U.S. states. Mountaire Farms raises chickens on a massive industrial scale, poisons local well water, and has no concern for anyone's welfare: human, animal, the planet, or otherwise – except for themselves, their profits.

As for the American Humane Association, this organization has NOTHING to do with advancing farmed animal welfare. AHA should never be viewed as a "humane" organization with respect to farmed animals, laboratory animals, or even for animals in entertainment - their signature "welfare" project. American Humane is an arm of agribusiness, as is the American Veterinary Medical Association, which at the top tier is an arm of industrialized animal agriculture and animal experimentation. The AVMA serves and identifies with its wealthy, animal-abusing corporate clients and interests.

Once again, thank you for your coverage of the investigative revelations of the fraudulence of the lying organizations that cater to animal consumers' fairy-tale wishes and willful blindness to the miserable reality of farmed-animals' pitiful, tormented lives.

Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns. www.upc-online.org

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