News
HSUS asks WFBF to join tail docking effort
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has sent a letter to Wisconsin Farm Bureau president Jim Holte asking his organization to join the effort to prohibit tail docking of dairy cows. In the letter, HSUS vice president Paul Shapiro stated: “Having the second biggest dairy state join the shift away from tail-docking could be a helpful way to demonstrate that the industry takes animal welfare seriously and wants to be proactive on these important matters.”
Tail docking of dairy cattle is done by some farmers to help keep cows clean resulting in better sanitation and milk quality. HSUS contends evidence shows “there does not appear to be any influence of tail docking on cleanliness of udders or legs, nor does there appear to be a relationship between tail docking and milk quality.”
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Casey Langan says WFBF’s policy on animal welfare states: “We support farmers and veterinarians deciding appropriate husbandry practices for their farm. This should remain a decision between farmers and their veterinarians, and not be a legislative mandate prompted by an animal rights group whose end goal is to eliminate animal agriculture.”
Tail docking of dairy cattle is banned in California. The American Veterinary Medical Association opposes the practice for management purposes.
-
-
My farming credentials are limited to being an enthusiastic consumer of dairy (and other farm) products. However I have more than ten years experience with HSUS campaigns and claims to be promoting animal welfare in the world of pet animals. Having seen what they say about pets compared to what I know to be the truth, I want decisions about farming made by farmers.
-
As a life long resident of Wisconsin, that enjoys our dairy products and truly praises our farmers who work as hard as they do, am asking the state legislators not to place more hardships with foolish laws against our farming industry.
our farmers and their veterinarians are the ones most knowledgeable as to the best health management for their animals. no politician, unless he is a farmer first, should sit in Madison and dictate laws that might cause more hardship for our great dairy enterprises.
no animal rights organization should dictate laws in any state. should their be a need for any reform? it needs to come from the farmers themselves.
-
While I may not be familiar with cattle, I am familiar with dogs, and efforts to ban tail docking in dogs. It’s not an animal welfare issue; it’s an animal rights agenda. I have witnessed docking of puppies at the appropriate age, and they fuss less (if at all) over docking and dewclaw removal than they do clipping nails later on. But it seems any agenda (and fundraiser) is better than no agenda and truth be damned. If only they’d use their money for helping animals instead of legislating them out of existence, bit by bit.
-
I have zero experience with animal agriculture and am not qualified to take a stand on the issue of tail docking. Neither is HSUS. I do know that HSUS is violating it’s tax exempt status by lobbying around the clock.
Their 501(c)(4) subsidiary, the Humane Society Legislative Fund, was supposedly formed (a decade ago) to engage in unrestricted lobbying and endorsement of political candidates. HSLF does less lobbying than HSUS did before it’s formed a political arm. The tax returns of both groups from 2004 to 2012 document this beyond a doubt.
HSUS is guilty of tax fraud. Addressing that issue aggressively may result in far fewer battles like this one.
It should be part of the argument.
H$U$ continually proposes legislation intended to keep farmers and others involved in animal husbandry from doing what is best for their animals and the public that consumes the products produced.