| Please send letters before July 4th.
June 6, 2003
Please write today: Dr. Nancy Halpern, Director
Division of Animal Health
New Jersey Department of Agriculture
PO Box 330
Trenton, NJ 08625-0330
Email: humane.standards@ag.state.nj.us
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) has released draft
standards for the “minimum humane” treatment of farmed
animals. Instead of prohibiting inhumane practices and providing
practical remedies, the proposed rule states: “These standards
are not intended to modify those routine animal agriculture practices
that are performed each day by farmers in New Jersey.”
For example, farmers may transport and deprive newly hatched chicks
of food and water for up to 72 hours even though chicks are in a
dangerous state of dehydration and yolk sac depletion by 48 hours
without food and water. Farmers may cage hens in barren wire and
force-molt them by starving them for 14 days to manipulate egg production
even though this cruel practice impairs hens’ immunity and
predisposes them to Salmonella enteritidis infection. Farmers
may debeak (“beak trim”) chickens and turkeys even though
beak-trimming cuts through the beak’s sensitive nerve endings
causing extreme pain, and interferes with the ability of birds to
eat and preen normally.
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments
on its proposed “humane” standards for “livestock”
and “poultry” until July 4, 2003, so please write today.
The NJDA needs to hear from animal protection groups and from concerned
citizens. To read the standards, click on www.njfarms.org,
then click on the headline that says Letters Urgently Needed. Scroll
down and click on click here to access the New Jersey Department
of Agriculture web page and a copy of the Proposed New Rule Regarding
the Humane Treatment of Domestic Livestock.
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes
the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. http://www.UPC-online.org
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org
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