by Mark Parker
February 06, 2008 08:18 am
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Let me know if you find a white hat in the California meat packing plant abuse case.
Having given the livestock industry its biggest black eye since BSE was identified in the U.S., Hallmark Meat Packing certainly isn’t wearing one.
Neither is the ironically-named Humane Society of the United States which chose to maximize the damage it could inflict on American agriculture by conducting a six-week investigation rather than immediately reporting animal abuse at the Chino, Calif., facility to local authorities.
The big question for livestock producers is, which of these culprits wears the blackest hat?
After all, it’s pretty clear that neither is your friend.
A super-sized portion of the livestock industry has been in denial for years regarding the importance of perceived animal welfare. Despite indisputable evidence that American consumers want to know more about where their food comes from and how it is produced, a large segment of the industry continues its “just eat it and shut up” attitude.
Perhaps the most damaging stance those of us involved with livestock have struck, however, is in writing off animal welfare people as around-the-bend intellectual pygmies. Surely, we think, consumers will recognize them for what they are and go back to those good ol’ days of no-questions-asked shopping.
On both points, we have been way-wrong. The trend of consumers wanting to know more and more about their food will continue—continue and heighten.
As for those looney tune animal welfare people, well, it turns out that they're not crazy at all. Some, as a matter of fact, have proven to be brilliant strategists with incredibly deep pockets, as adept at fundraising as they are at anti-livestock operations.
When it comes to publicity, they beat us like a bass drum, grabbing headline after headline while the livestock industry apologizes, complains or just shuffles its feet.
The alphabet soup of animal welfare organizations has a huge advantage, of course. Influencing the public is what they do—it’s all they do.
And they’re damn good at it.
Livestock producers, on the other hand, just want to produce livestock because that’s what they’re good at. The animal welfare industry—and be clear on the fact that it is an industry—has one heckuva home field advantage.
Livestock folks need to get better at presenting a positive image to the public and, as Ann Landers used to suggest, it’s going to have to seek professional help to accomplish that task. Sitting in the coffee shop sermonizing on how that cow kicked you way harder than you ever kicked her just won't cut it. Neither will the tired old explanation that you take good care of your stock because economics demand it.
Thirty seconds of shock video and—poof—both arguments are dead on arrival.
Thankfully, a good portion of the public still sees farmers and ranchers as guys wearing white hats but that’s not guaranteed and it will not stand up forever against a well-orchestrated barrage of anti-livestock campaigns from the Humane Society of the United States, PeTA and others.
Industry leaders absolutely must abandon the tired, old “one bad apple” defense. It is a negative approach which gains nothing and is vaporized every time a case of livestock abuse is documented.
Yes, there have been efforts to combat the onslaught waged by animal welfare groups but they are going to have to be stepped up because stockmen are facing a smart, sophisticated and well-funded adversary, not a loose-knit coven of Kumbaya singing '60s retreads looking for something to do on the weekend.
Rank and file cattle, goat, sheep, horse and hog producers need to support an increased public information effort but they also have a critical role to play every single day on their own farms and ranches.
They have to stop providing the bullets animal welfare organizations shoot back at them and demand the same from their partners throughout the industry.
We can get into all kinds of discussions on perspective and what constitutes animal abuse but, in the end, if the Humane Society and others have no dramatic documentary footage to unleash on the public, its agenda becomes far more difficult to attain.
So who is your biggest enemy? Who’s wearing the blackest hat? For my money it’s the stockman—be he packer, supplier or producer—who keeps right on passing that ammunition to people who know all too well how to use it.
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