The Rural Voice, 1987-03, Page 14hisex
DAY OLD CHICKS
and
STARTED PULLETS
from
FISHER POULTRY
FARM INC.
AYTON.ONT NOG1CO
519-665-7711
CATTLE SQUEEZE
with
Automatic Headgate
Squeeze sides
— fold down for working
on the animal
— are operated from either side
The regular chute is
available with
extension cage,
side doors,
and wheel transport.
Maintenance free
Hydraulic Scale
0-1 /2% accurate,
eligible for Red Meat Grant
We also manufacture feed fronts
—self-locking type or
conventional slant -bar style
For catalogue and price list, contact
E. S. Martin Welding
R. R. 1, Linwood, Ont. NOB 2A0
(519) 698-2283
12 THE RURAL VOICE
ANIMAL RIGHTS
VS. REALITY
The placement of three letters to
the editor next to one another in a
large daily newspaper drove the point
home. There at the top was a letter
worrying about "unconsidered expan-
sion" of the city. There below were
two letters from urban animal-rights
proponents protesting the "barbaric
aspect" of trapping.
It hit me that here were people
living in an expanding city worrying
about problems man causes wild anim-
als while ignoring the fact that their
very urban lifestyle kills off wildlife.
If you counted the decline in wild-
life population caused by trappers in
the past 30 years and compared it to
the decline in wildlife from the loss of
habitat to expanding urban areas and
the decline of wildlife caused by pollu-
tion from urban chemical plants or
just from urban sewers, the trappers
and hunters would probably look like
minnows in a vicious tank of sharks.
David Suzuki, in "A Planet for the
Taking," has pointed out that as peo-
ple get further and further from living
off the land, they become more and
more idealistic and less and less real-
istic. You may still eat prime chuck
but you can happily divorce yourself
from the idea that an animal had to die
to put it on your plate. You can enjoy
a comfortable life without worrying
about the laws of nature which dictate
that if some animals are to live, others
must die.
I know how inviting that happy
blindness is. For years I annually
raised a few chickens for meat. On
one or two occasions when I had more
time than money, I took the axe in
hand and did the dirty deed myself. But
the extra enjoyment you get at eating
time when somebody else has turned
the live chicken into an anonymous,
plastic -wrapped roaster is well worth
the money.
I gave up hunting not long after I
was a 12 -year-old farm boy shooting
sparrows. And I couldn't enjoy keep-
ing chickens in little cages for the
same reason that I didn't enjoy living
in the human equivalent: boxed apart-
ments in a highrise. I couldn't have an
intensive hog operation for the same
reason that I can't stand being constant-
ly surrounded by people in a big city.
Vicki Miller paints an inviting
picture when she says we should aban-
don intensive livestock operations and
go back to the mixed -farming practices
of the past. But should is one thing.
Could is another.
I suspect there are many farmers
with modem intensive operations who
would like to go back to the old ways
but would like Ms. Miller to tell them
how they can do it practically. Even
farmers reaping the benefits of inten-
sive hog, chicken, and beef operations
face a financial crunch.
Probably one farm commodity for
which production methods could be
changed — if all the farmers agreed —
is eggs, because the producers control
the price. But could you imagine the
screams from consumers if egg pro-
ducers were to raise their prices enough
to cover the costs of producing eggs
from hens that weren't caged?
The people leading the animal-
rights movement are nearly always big -
city people, people leading lives built
on the backs of people who "exploit"
animals. They live in a country that
was explored because of the fur trade
and was cleared by farmers, in cities
that were built around factories that
either made things to sell to farmers or
manufactured goods from the farm for
people in the city.
But Vicki Miller and the people
she leads will never understand this.
They don't have to get their hands dirty
in the real world of those who harvest
from the land or the sea and make it
possible for city people to enjoy the
good life.°
Keith Roulston, who lives near
Blyth, is the originator and publisher
of The Rural Voice.