Big Pig Sides with Big Pork

What a truly despicable human being ...

[Chris] Christie took the opportunity to jump in bed with Big Pork by pledging to veto a bill that would ban the use of gestation crates on New Jersey pig farms.

The Republican governor, who traditionally backs off from declaring how he’ll act on pending legislation when asked by reporters, made his intentions clear on a pig gestation crate bill when asked last month about it during a visit to Northwest Iowa, according to a pork producer.

“He indicated to us that he was going to veto the bill,” said Bill Tentinger, an Iowa pork producer and former president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

This is the second attempt by New Jersey lawmakers to ban gestation crates, which hold pregnant sows in rigid positions for months on end and are so cruel that noted animal rights activists McDonald’s and Burger King don’t want their pork suppliers using them.

When Christie — a potential Republican presidential candidate — vetoed a similar bill in 2013, proponents of the measure accused him of of putting presidential politics ahead of the will of the New Jersey people, who overwhelming support banning the practice. Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses, has a large number of pig farms and banning the practice is unpopular there.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/chris_christie_tells_iowa_voters_hell_veto_nj_pig_bill_thats_unpopular_in_2016_presidential_battlegr.html

LOL! Like you really care about pigs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/opinion/free-pigs-from-the-abusive-crates.html?_r=0

Free Pigs From the Abusive Crates

By BILL MAHER OCT. 17, 2014

WOULD you cram a dog into a crate for her entire life, never letting her out, until you took her to the pound to kill her?

Of course you wouldn’t, and yet that’s effectively what happens to most mother pigs in this country. They spend their lives in what are called gestation crates, tiny stalls that house pregnant sows. They cannot even turn around, and are immobilized in these crates until they are taken to the slaughterhouse.

Pigs are smart animals — the brainiacs of the barnyard, basically. They have outperformed dogs on tests of behavioral and cognitive sophistication. In fact, they learn rudimentary video games as quickly as chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives.

The primatologist Jane Goodall writes that “farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain. They are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined ... they are individuals in their own right.”

But when abnormally enclosed, their muscles and bones waste away, and they go insane from boredom. Just as you would if you couldn’t move.

Fortunately, we’re seeing changes. Animal protection organizations are putting pressure on corporations to change, and so we’re seeing policies to get rid of these crates from the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King and Smithfield Foods.

We’ve also seen bills or initiatives passed in nine states that require that all pigs be given at least enough space to turn around.

It’s a modest improvement, but the pork producers are fighting it. A spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council actually said to a reporter for National Journal, “I don’t know who asked the sow if she wanted to turn around.” (The council later issued a statement regretting the comment.)

These laws are bipartisan: California passed a ban on crates, not surprisingly, but so did the more conservative states of Florida and Arizona.

New Jersey would be the 10th. A poll conducted last month by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research found that 93 percent of New Jersey voters wanted to see these crates banned — including 94 percent of Democrats and independents, and 92 percent of Republicans. Both chambers of the State Legislature have now passed it. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this movie before. A year ago, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a similar bill that had passed the Assembly and Senate by huge bipartisan majorities — 60 to 5 in the Assembly and 29 to 4 in the Senate.

Continue reading the main story

Governor Christie claimed to be vetoing the bill based on merits, but I cannot imagine that he thinks it’s O.K. to confine pigs in their own waste, immobile, for years at a time.

There must be more to it. Could it be that a possible presidential candidate is aware that Iowa is the No. 1 pig state in the country, and that Republican primary voters there are strongly anti-regulation?

It is no more acceptable to abuse a pig than it would be to abuse a dog, which is illegal. These crates should already be illegal under the New Jersey animal welfare laws, but since they aren’t, Mr. Christie should sign the bill this time. It would hardly put pigs into luxurious settings. It doesn’t force pig producers to choose a specific kind of housing; it merely says the animals have to be allowed to turn around, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.

When Governor Christie vetoed the bill, he said he was concerned that it bypassed the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, so the bill’s sponsors changed it so that it works through that department. So Mr. Christie really has no excuse to veto it again.

I have been involved in the animal rights cause for decades, and nothing makes me angrier than cramming animals into environments where they can’t move.

We should not play politics with animals’ lives. Banning crates in my native state of New Jersey is the right thing to do.

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Saw this a month ago...I didn't realize Bill Maher was an animal activist.  I guess Gov. Christie doesn't read the NYT...or is unconcerned about the humane treatment of animals.

When I was a kid I saw pig enclosures which were these little houses spread over an acre or so.  The pigs could run about and socialize and dig around in the mud and sun themselves.   A good friend of mine just got out of the hog business after 40 years.  His was one of the first containment operations.  The pigs never saw daylight, they had a big slurry tank in which the concrete was automatically sprayed down and waste collected.  The feeding was automatic, and the farmers go through an elaborate type of clean room changing not to allow outside virus to infect their enclosures.   Friends who have enclosures know it is against the rules to go onto another pig enclosure property because of the risk of virus spread.   The hogs live horrible lives compared to 40 years ago.  Nobody complains when they get cheap food in America, but the truth is that containment hog farming is MORE brutal than just the pens.   So if anybody has any ethical integrity they would be looking at containment hog farming and the large factory farms..........politics....you bet, but please do not tell me about ethics......I have my bacon every Sunday morning and wish that outdoor hog farming was the rule, but it is not.   Let somebody go to Iowa saying they are going to vote to end containment hog farming......utter hypocrisy to pick on Chris.

My far left Progressive friends are eager to post anything possible so they don't have to make their feeble attempts to defend this semi-retired President and the LIES he told to cram Obamacare up our...throats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

My far left Progressive friends are eager to post anything possible so they don't have to make their feeble attempts to defend this semi-retired President and the LIES he told to cram Obamacare up our...throats.


That was your argument in 2012. You actually had a chance to defeat President Obama if the American people bought into your argument. They did not. You lost. Whining is unbecoming for a loser.

I grew up working cattle... and we always had pigs and chickens. I highly recommend finding a local farm to buy your meat and vegetables from. It's more expensive... but the difference in taste and quality are remarkable. I even canned this year.

Hunting, fishing, and gardening are great ways to add excellent food too... and I grow herbs.

My grandparents raised chickens, had pear, and apple trees. They had a large garden and a greenhouse. My grandmother would can the vegetables, fruit, and would kill the chickens as needed. They stopped raising the chickens in 1950 because the area in North Birmingham around the ACIPCO plant was becoming more urban and the neighbors started building around their home. Cancer was still in existence in 1950, but it was mostly lung cancer from smoking and nowhere as prolific as today. We are destroying our environment and it is time to take some steps back. It will be very difficult because of the efficiency of modern farming practices.

I'm building bee boxes this winter too... and bat boxes. We got two feet of snow yesterday... I need projects.

Buying bullet proof vests and heavy weapons to attack and take your chickens and stuff.....Resistance is futile....

Lol... make my day.

PkrBum wrote:Lol... make my day.

Don't worry I am a generous warlord. I will leave you enough to replenish and keep you and your servants alive...