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Issues

Factory Farming

REPORT ON LEGISLATION

NYS A.1341 M. of A. Rosenthal
NYS S.4718 Sen. Boyle

POSITION: SUPPORT

ESHV supports the enactment of NYS A.1341/S.4718 to ban the use of veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages in New York State.

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Intensive confinement practices, including the use of veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages, are inhumane and a serious threat to public health and the environment due to their link to the proliferation of anti-biotic resistant bacteria and water and air pollution.

Background

Veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages are some of the cruelest hallmarks of factory farms. These intensive confinement devices restrict baby cows, mother pigs and egg-laying hens to spaces barely larger than the size of their bodies for most of their lives. These inhumane practices deprive animals of the ability to engage in some of the most basic natural behaviors, such as lying down, standing up, fully extending their limbs, or turning around freely.

Veal Crates

Veal calves (male dairy calves) are commonly removed from their mothers immediately after birth and are raised in confined spaces to limit exercise and muscle growth in order to produce tender veal. Traditionally, veal production practices include individually confining calves in narrow stalls or crates (approximately 26-30 inches wide and 66 inches long) which do not permit the animals to engage in basic movements such as standing up or turning around, leading to such physical ailments as digestive problems, discomfort, impaired locomotion, and a greater susceptibility to disease.

Gestation Crates

Female breeding pigs are commonly confined for their entire lives in gestation crates, individual, concrete-floored metal stalls (approximately 2.5 feet wide by 6.5 feet long) which are barely larger than the animal’s body and prevent her from turning around or taking more than a step forward or backward.

Battery Cages

Egg-laying hens are commonly raised in large sheds and other indoor structures containing 20,000 chickens or more where they are confined in wire battery cages that are smaller than the area of a sheet of 8½ by 11 inch paper (approximately 67 to 86 square inches of usable space per bird). These conditions make it impossible for these animals to spread their wings or turn around.

New York State law does not prohibit these practices and there is no federal law that provides mandatory animal welfare standards for the treatment of farmed animals prior to transport and slaughter. At least twelve other states have banned certain intensive confinement practices. 1

Public Health and Environmental Concerns

In addition to being cruel, intensive confinement devices are a serious threat to public health and the environment due to their link antibiotic resistant bacteria as well as air and water pollution.

The link between intensive confinement devices and antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Intensive confinement devices such as veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages create stressful and unsanitary conditions that cause inevitable illness and infection in farmed animals. As a result animals on factory farms are fed a steady supply of antibiotics: It has been estimated that up to 70% of all antibiotics sold in the United States are given to healthy food animals. 2

Public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration, have identified the widespread use of antibiotics in food-producing animals as a significant factor in the emergence and transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans and called for a phasing out of the use of intensive confinement practices, including discontinuance of the use of gestation crates, veal crates and battery cages to protect public health by reducing opportunities for the proliferation of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. 3 4

The link between intensive confinement devices and air and water pollution

Intensive confinement of farmed animals also poses serious environmental concerns. Manure production at a single factory farm can range from 2,800 tons to 1.6 million tons each year and includes heavy metals, hormones and antibiotics, as well as nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, gases such as nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide, and pathogens such as E. Coli and Salmonella. These emissions pollute our water and air and are recognized as one of the most significant causes of global warming. 5

Impact of the Proposed Legislation

The proposed legislation would create a new section 353-g of the New York Agriculture and Markets Law to make it unlawful to confine a pig during pregnancy, calf raised for veal, or an egg-laying hen for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up and fully extending his or her limbs and turning around freely. The proposed legislation would not prohibit such confinement during transportation, exhibitions at rodeos, fairs, youth programs, and similar exhibitions, the slaughtering process, scientific or agricultural research, examination, testing, individual treatment or operation for veterinary purposes. The proposed legislation also would permit such confinement of a pig during the seven-day period prior to the pig’s expected date of giving birth.

Violation of the law would be a Class A misdemeanor. 6 The effective date would be twenty-four months after the proposed legislation becomes a law.

Take Action:

Call your NYS assembly member and senator and ask them to protect farm animals from extreme cruelty voting for NYS A.1341/S.4718.

Questions:

Contact ESHV Executive Director, Allie Feldman Taylor at allie@eshv.org

March 2017

Stop Cruelty to Wildlife Animals

REPORT ON LEGISLATION

NYS A.5050 M. of A. Rosenthal
NYS S.620 Sen. Boyle

POSITION: SUPPORT

ESHV supports the enactment of NYS A.5050/S.620 to ensure that wild animals are protected under New York’s anti-cruelty laws.

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Today, New York State law contains a loophole that excludes wildlife from protection under the state felony cruelty law. NYS A.5050/S.620 would eliminate this loophole by extending felony cruelty protection to wild animals.

Background

NY’s felony animal cruelty law (Agriculture and Markets Law § 353-a(1)) provides that “[a] person is guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals when, with no justifiable purpose, he or she intentionally kills or intentionally causes serious physical injury to a companion animal with aggravated cruelty.” 1 Currently NY’s felony animal cruelty law applies only to “companion animals” 2 and therefore is inapplicable to wildlife. Under current law, even the most heinous cruelty to wildlife is a mere misdemeanor.

Wild animals are as capable of feeling pain and suffering as companion animals and deserve protection from aggravated cruelty. Over 38 other states include wildlife in their felony cruelty statues. It’s time for NY to get serious about animal cruelty and do the same.

Due to this loophole, a number of egregious instances of aggravated cruelty against wild animals have occurred in New York with limited consequences: 3

  • May 2016: Porcupines were clubbed to death by teens Albany and Schoharie counties. 4
  • February 2016: Baby raccoons were trapped in a cage for days without food, water or protection from the elements. 5
  • August 2011: a great blue heron was tortured and killed in Jay, NY. 6
  • July 2011: a turtle in Sag Harbor, NY was found with a rusty three-inch nail driven into his shell. 7
  • July 2011: the Suffolk County ASPCA reported several attacks against seagulls, including an incident in which a person bludgeoned a bird after luring the bird to the beach with bread, and incidents where birds were impaled with arrows and blow darts. 8
  • July 2011: a swan in Riverhead, NY was found with an arrow shot through her torso. 9
  • June 2010: a Canada goose in Prospect Park, Brooklyn was found with a crossbow arrow shot through his neck. 10
  • 2007: a snapping turtle was tortured and killed with a pipe bomb in Albany, NY. 11
  • July 2007: a peacock was choked and bludgeoned to death by a man in a restaurant parking lot in Staten Island. 12
  • May 2005: two swans were beaten and stabbed at a park in the Bronx. 13
  • May 2006: a Canadian goose was strangled by a man at Hamburg, NY fairgrounds. 14

Impact of the Proposed Legislation

NYS A.5050/S.620 would protect wildlife from aggravated cruelty by amending section 353-a of the Agriculture and Markets law to expand the existing definition of aggravated cruelty to “wildlife” (other than insects) as defined in section 11-0103 of the Environmental Conservation Law. 15 The proposed legislation would not prohibit otherwise lawful hunting, trapping, fishing or agricultural practices pursuant to N.Y. AGM. LAW §308.

Cracking down on animal cruelty protects animals as well as the entire community. There is a demonstrated a connection between animal cruelty and violence against humans, including child abuse, domestic violence, and other family violence. By allowing law enforcement and our courts to treat animal cruelty to wildlife and other animals with the seriousness it deserves, we can deter violence against animals and people.

Take Action:

Call your NYS assembly member and senator and ask them to protect wildlife from cruelty by voting for A5050/S.620.

Questions:

Contact ESHV Executive Director, Allie Feldman Taylor at allie@eshv.org

End The Use of Exotic Animals in the Circus

REPORT ON LEGISLATION

NYC Intro. 1233A
Council Members Mendez, Johnson, Palma, Cabrera, Dromm, Koslowitz, Williams, Rodriguez, Rosenthal, Gibson, Torres, Cohen, Levin, Vacca, Cornegy, Richards, Reynoso, Salamanca, Menchaca, Espinal, Ferreras-Copeland, Chin, Lander, Gentile, Van Bramer, Levine, Perkins, Cumbo, Maisel, Garodnick, Grodenchik, Vallone,Treyger, Ulrich, Public Advocate James

POSITION: SUPPORT

ESHV supports the enactment of NYC Intro. 1233A to prohibit the use of wild or exotic animals in circuses.

Background

The use of wild animals in circuses is inhumane and a serious risk to public safety. Intro. 1233A is needed because current laws do not adequately protect animals and people from the cruelty and safety risks posed by the use of wild animals in circuses in New York City.

Animal Cruelty

In the wild elephants do not perform headstands, bears do not balance on balls, and tigers do not jump through rings of fire. Circus animals are forced to perform these unnatural tricks under threat of physical punishment. Numerous undercover investigations have demonstrated widespread use of brutal and abusive training techniques for circus animals including shocking with electric prods, and beatings with metal bars, baseball bats, whips, pitchforks and hooked rods known as bullhooks. 1 Animals may also be drugged or have their teeth or claws surgically removed. When they are not being forced to perform, circus animals endure extensive travel – sometimes 11 months out of the year – in cramped trailers where they are often chained and isolated for long durations and denied exercise and other natural behavioral needs. This unnatural confinement leads to further psychological and physical trauma.

Public Safety

The use of wild animals in circuses poses a serious risk to public safety. Wild animals by nature can act instinctively and unpredictably. Factoring in the additional and chronic stress caused by the abusive training methods and conditions of captivity, there is a high risk that these animals may attempt to attack or escape. Wild animals may also carry serious transmittable diseases and infections, including tuberculosis. Current local, state, and federal law does not adequately protect circus animals from cruelty or protect the public from the dangers posed by these animals. Indeed many of the circuses that routinely perform in NYC have been repeatedly cited for violations of the Animal Welfare Act and have been documented engaging in egregious animal cruelty in undercover video investigations. Greenburgh, NY, Plattsburgh, NY and Southampton, NY have already enacted local laws to ban the use of wild animals in circuses and a many other states and municipalities in the U.S. and around the globe have enacted done the same. It’s time for NYC to prioritize humane treatment of animals and protecting public safety by enacting Intro. 1233A.

Take Action:

Thank Mayor de Blasio for signing the bill into law!