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36 THE RURAL VOICE
NEWS
ANIMAL RIGHTS ISSUE
COULD BE DAMAGING,
SAYS OFA PRESIDENT
More than 200 Grey County far-
mers braved the last of winter's stormy
weather to hear Ontario Federation of
Agriculture (OFA) president Brigid
Pyke speak in Priceville April 2.
The Grey federation organized the
meeting, which included Pyke's
speech, a question and answer period,
and a get -acquainted session.
And according to Pyke, something
farmers should be prepared to "get
acquainted" with are the activities of
animal welfare activists.
Accusations of livestock mistreat-
ment in "factory farming" operations
may seem ridiculous to farmers, she
said, but the emotional appeal of such
arguments to urban audiences should
not be underestimated.
Activists such as Toronto Humane
Society president Vicki Miller want to
"provide their urban audience with
visions of the slaughter process, de -
homing calves, and veal calves raised
in little boxes," Pyke said. "And if
you flash enough images of these
things to an urban audience, the ration-
ale is you can ruin the market."
While Pyke said she doubted that
activists could turn all North Amer-
icans into vegetarians, she noted that
"10, 15, or 20 per cent of the meat
market could disappear" because of
their tactics.
Some farmers have begun to fight
back, Pyke said, but countering the
animal welfarists' media campaigns
could be expensive.
"You've got to reach an urban audi-
ence, and that isn't cheap, no matter
how you plan to do it."
"We've got $177,000 in our re-
search department, which is actually
peanuts. When you take out office
overhead what we've got left we could
spend on animal welfare in one year,
and there are a million other topics to
deal with."
On other matters, Pyke said that
the OFA will be watching closely the
possibility of a free trade deal by next
fall. The different needs of various
commodity groups means that agri-
culture "can't be dealt with across the
board," she said.