Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Legislature / Politics / Woods All the Starving Horses: Legislature Won't Do Anything to Stop Livestock Cruelty
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 1:17 PM
With shocking images of the worst case of equine abuse in Tennessee history still fresh in the public mind, our state lawmakers are about to kill Rep. Janis Sontany's bill to strengthen penalties against cruelty to farm animals. This is surprising to ordinary reasonable people who inhabit this planet. But to anyone familiar with the wacky world of the Tennessee General Assembly, it's all too depressingly familiar.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau sent its minions in droves to the Legislative Plaza today as the bill came before the House Agriculture Committee for the first time. It would make livestock cruelty a felony instead of a misdemeanor. The Farm Bureau claims this would give animal lovers the right to harass poor farmers for branding their cows or some other common agriculture practice.
The show of force was unnecessary. Unbeknownst to the public, the bill died the moment House Speaker Kent Williams assigned it to the Agriculture Committee rather than Judiciary where it should have gone if anyone in the House leadership was really serious about passing it. The Agriculture Committee is dominated by farmers who would like to laugh Sontany right out of the room. The committee heard testimony today, but ran out of time to vote.
In a letter to constituents, Sontany accused Farm Bureau officials of rejecting her attempts to craft a compromise acceptable to both sides.
"When I first drafted this legislation, I met with Farm Bureau Insurance Company's lobbyists to try to find some common ground. I was told that starving these horses didn't rise to the level of aggravated animal cruelty and the current law was working just fine and they refused to negotiate," Sontany wrote."Last week, Farm Bureau's President, Lacy Upchurch, and their Chief Administrative Officer, Julius Johnson, visited my office to discuss my bill. I was so in hopes that we could negotiate in good faith to have a bill that we both could agree on that would stop this continued cruelty. They, however, only wanted to express to me their concern that this legislation would land some poor farmer in jail for dehorning his cattle. My bill clearly exempts accepted veterinary practices and makes no mention of discontinuing current tax breaks for farmers on livestock."
Sontany should know better than to expect any other treatment. This is all Kabuki theater, a pantomime process to fool voters into thinking lawmakers are giving her bill due consideration. They will kill it at the first opportunity.
Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
That's pathetic. In my opinion, farmers are shooting themselves in the foot by obstructing this legislation. What they're basically saying is that agriculture cannot be conducted humanely, according to accepted animal welfare/veterinary standards. Otherwise what are they so afraid of?
C'mon boys, it's the 21st century. Get with the program. You take the side of the abusers to your own detriment.
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Come on Jeff, House Leadership you mean Republican House Leadership don't you, you should know that the Democratic Leadership is not in the majority and therefore has know say in Bill assignment. You are however consistent. When Ronnie Barrett hosted his gun shoot, you reported on the shameless dereliction of duty of the Legislature even though only one Democrat attended the event. You reported on Barrett's road Bill that the Legislators run for cover, even though in the house no Democrats support the Bill. Give us our due, if we screw up nail us, but just because you can't stomach me or Chip you shouldn't slant the news against all Democrats, your Readers deserve better.
Oh please. Let's see how Democrats Stratton Bone and Willie Borchert vote on this one in the Ag Committee. Meanwhile, the Democrats' so-called leadership is playing its usual hiding game.
House Committee on the Judiciary, or (more commonly) the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the state courts, administrative agencies and State law enforcement entities. The Judiciary Committee is also the committee responsible for impeachments of State officials. Because of the legal nature of its oversight, committee members usually have a legal background, but it is not required.
Mr Woods, would you look at the above and tell me why rules concerning animal husbandry should go to the Judiciary Committee instead of Agricultural?
I'm against animal cruelty more than most but for a political reporter, You are looking kinda clueless. C'mon, you are supposed to KNOW this stuff.
I cut and pasted that right out of the state house website.
I think it should have gone to Judiciary because we're dealing with a criminal statute here against animal cruelty. Naifeh used to send all the anti-smoking bills to Ag to kill them. Now Williams is doing the same thing.
Mr Woods, it doesnt matter where you THINK a bill should go. What matters is the job description of the committee. A competent political reporter should have that info at his or her fingertips. The job description of Judiciary does not include agriculture or animal husbandry in any way. I agree that the penalties should be increased for cruelty but you are sounding like one of those Mumpower supporters that tries to blame Kent Williams when their toilet stops up.
Bottom line here, Farm Bureau will try to kill the bill no matter what committee it would have been assigned to. What Farm Bureau does not realize is that this bill actually helps them. An amendment that was drafted to this bill states that in order to swear out a warrant against a farmer a person must first obtain an affidavit signed by a licensed vet attesting to the animal cruelty. Under current law anyone can swear out a warrant against a farmer and it stays on their record. Also, Farm Bureau has over 600,000 members and there are only 79,000 farms in TN. Unfortunately, only the farmers get to make policy and the other 530,000 plus associate members have no say in policy except for paying their dues and premiums. Great article Jeff and I appreciate you writing it.
Ron, I'll agree with you 100%. My only beef with the whole blog was a political reporter who didnt know where a certain type of bill was supposed to go (not very competent in my opinion). It almost looked like an unholy alliance of PETA and Mumpower supporters. Maybe if the non-farmer members of Farm Bureau would vote with their wallets, the Bureau would get a clue. I mean no matter where it went, the lobbyists would have been fighting it. Using that logic, Williams had NOTHING to do with killing the bill.
Why make something a felony when a misdemeanor is being inforced? A misdemeanor offense carries a $2500 fine per animal and 11 months 29 days in jail per animal. A felony carries a $3000 fine and just a little over a year in jail. If a person isn't taking care of an animal do you honestly think changing it from a misdemeanor to a felony is going to make that person a better caretaker. The misdemeanor's aren't being enforced so why make it a felony. Make the judges enforce the misdemeanors. Farm Bureau in no way supports starving or mistreating animals. HSUS wants to do away with all animal agriculture period and will go to any means to do that. You can find the healthest cattle herd of cows out there and have one cow sick and the media comes out to your farm and plasters video footage all over the news showing that one sick cow and now the farmer is accused of abusing all his livestock because of the spin the media and HSUS puts on the story. They don't show the rest of the herd just the one sick cow.
I have lived in Tennessee for 45 years and I sincerely love my state and
it's people. I have been following the animal abuse cases here in my state
for many years and I feel with all my heart that now is the time to speak for
the abuse of all animals whether it is household pets or farm animals.
I know that the members of the state agricultural committee are not from my district but our state reps.
together speak for all of us. I'm sure most of you are a very dedicated individuals
who have worked hard for the people of Tn. and I pray that you will take the
time from your busy schedule to please hear me out.
A few months ago I e-mailed a letter to everyone of our state reps. and
senators begging them to change the law to charge anyone with a felony
who abuses all animals including farm animals. I received 6 answers!!
Withholding water and food from any animal resulting in their starvation
and death is animal cruelty and neglect.
I know that the Tennessee Farm Bureau and President, Lacy
Upchurch disagree along with our State Agricultural Committee and Lee
Maddox. What I don't understand is why would all of you would want to protect those
who would do such horrific things to farm animals. You would do better
in the eyes of decent Tennesseans and our country to set an example for your organization
and not want to exempt those abusers from the penalties due them. Lacy
Upchurch remarked that animal activists don't understand modem farm
practices and we could mistake them as mistreatment. I have had horses all
of my life and I can assure you that I know the difference between modem
farm practices and mistreatment. That was a hollow comment made by
him. I am not affiliated with any animal welfare organzation and never have been.
My main objective is to see that animals are not abused or neglected in any way.
Withholding food and/or water from farm animals constitutes abuse ,cruely and
neglect to me and I feel that of all the organizations in our state , our Farm Bureau and State Ag. Committee should
feel the same way and be willing to agree with a bill that hopefully will help prevent this.
Our farm consists of our broodmares and our retired road pony.
Also a rescued donkey ,two minature horses we pd. for to rescue and a 14yr. old
gelding that we sold as a 3yr. old and bought back from a rescue in Pa. last year as
he was on his way to the killers.He was starving, had not had any immunizations and today he is a healthy,
sound horse living a peaceful life on our farm. I have seen the abuse and neglect that is perpetrated
on these animals and feel that the laws are too lax on those who do this.
Mr. Upchurch also stated that farmers are treated as the bad guys and
afraid that they might be harassed over this issue. Never, never have I ever
known of a farmer being harassed over taking good care of his animals.
If the Farm Bureau and State Ag. Committee want to fight for farmers then let them
fight for the ones that they can be proud of, who best represent their
organization and state. The others, who abuse, need to be punished and not just
by a slap on the wrist. I am not asking any of you to be judge and jury as you
stated but simply asking you to allow a judge or jury to hear the cases for
all animal abuse and let them decide on felony guilt or not. I believe in my
heart that those who abuse animals, all animals, will abuse period! They don't deserve to be recognized as members of your organization!
To Mark..The misdemeanor charges given to the two men in Cannon Co. for the abuse and starvation of 84 horses, goats, chickens and whatever else netted them a $1500.00 bond. According to your statement, a misdemeanor charge should get them a $2500.00 fine for each animal..right? Then lets count just the horses (84 of them x $2500.00)That's a $250000.00 fine. Now lets take an 11/29 in jail time per animal. Estimated its about 84 years in jail. That's a complete joke. Please give me one instance where an abuser of farm animals has served that much time on a misdemeanor! This is the reason why all animal abuse must fall under a felony. Using the Humane Society and other Animal Rights Organizations as a justified reason to be against the bill before the state Ag. committee is simply another scare tactic that seems to be used frequently across this country in many states by the Farm Bureau.
