Last weekend my family attended the Indiana Young Farmer Conference. This is a great experience for anyone interested in Agriculture (who lives in Indiana, who is a Farm Bureau member, who is 18-35 years old). Farm Bureau covers the hotel (one night) and all your meals and snacks, and provides great entertainment as well as educational and networking opportunities. There is actually now a website network for Indiana Young Farmers, which is great!
I found this link on there, which shows some interesting 2-4 minute videos on YouTube about the pork industry in Ohio. Very informative. Be sure to check it out. There is a lot of false information put out there by various groups (PETA in particular) that is simply not true and is sadly tarnishing the reputation of animal agriculture without cause. The videos in the link help show the facts about what really goes on with people who raise livestock for a living. Raising animals is hard work, and if someone didn't like the animals and enjoy being around them, they wouldn't have them in the first place.
If you have considered donating money to an organization that claims it stands for animal welfare, please be sure you know to what cause you are really donating. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is largely a political action group that lobbies towards the goal of vegan lifestyles for all. Nothing wrong with being vegan if that is a choice you have made, but that certainly isn't a choice I want forced upon me by legistlature! PETA even states on their website that they want to eradicate the use of animals for human gain, which even includes (according to them) keeping pet dogs and cats - they want to stop people from having pets! Many animal welfare charities claim they stand for animal welfare, but in reality they are pushing to have laws made based on wrong information, or misinformation.
I myself very much love animals! I have two horses, one of which is 29 years old and can no longer be ridden, he is retired but he will have a home with me as long as he lives. We have adopted a Great Pyrenees from Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue, and currently are fostering 4 of their other livestock guardian dogs until they are able to find forever homes for them as well. But, I firmly believe that donating money to the HSUS or PETA does not help animals, it just lines the pockets of those at the top of those organizations. If you are interested in helping animals, consider donating to a breed rescue, such as IGPR, or your favorite dog or cat breed. These people (often volunteers) really do seek out animals who are in bad situations and help them, whereas HSUS pretty much just lobbies Washington and never actually helps individual animals in need of rescue.
Want to learn more about where I stand on animal welfare? Ask me! I'd love to talk about it.
Friday 4/24/15
9 years ago
