skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, February 10, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Vance questions authority of US judges to challenge Trump; UAW contract negotiations at VW focus on higher wages, health care, retirement; Report highlights how Georgia can unlock rural infrastructure, broadband; Leftover fish parts could help keep industrial fishing waste low.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The head of the new White House Faith Office draws scrutiny, Trump moves to fire the Federal Elections Commission chair, and a North Carolina judge won't toss tens of thousands of ballots in a state Supreme Court race.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Medical debt, which tops $90 billion has an outsized impact on rural communities, a new photography book shares the story of 5,000 schools built for Black students between 1912 and 1937, and anti-hunger advocates champion SNAP.

Few animal welfare laws lead to misery in factory farms

play audio
Play

Wednesday, November 27, 2024   

Advocates said a lack of animal welfare laws is leading to pain and suffering on American factory farms.

Close to 99% of livestock is now raised in industrial-type facilities, where animal welfare groups said efficiency and profitability take precedence over animals' well-being.

Delcianna Winders, associate professor of law and director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School, said while more than a dozen states have banned what are deemed torture-like confinement for animals, there is no federal law protecting them from abuse.

"If most people were aware that the animal they're sitting down to eat couldn't move throughout their entire life, just to give one example, I don't think they would want to support that," Winders contended.

Winders pointed out the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act requires animals be knocked unconscious before they are killed but corporations running factory farms are lobbying for the law to be weakened in order to speed up meat production.

So-called "ag-gag" laws in several states criminally penalize those who seek to expose animal suffering on farms, in slaughterhouses and at animal auctions. Winders added she is concerned a second Trump Administration could allow factory farm owners to further erode any remaining health and safety standards.

"They've been able to carve themselves out from complying with the laws that everybody else has to comply with," Winders asserted. "That certainly includes cruelty-to-animals laws. It also includes pollution laws, worker-safety laws, the whole gamut."

Winders advised people concerned with animal welfare to try more plant-based alternatives to meat and learn more about how their food is raised. She stressed as consumers increasingly turn to "organic" and "free-range" meat options, corporations are working to lower the standards for what those labels mean and the conditions under which those animals can be raised.

This story is based on original reporting by Seth Millstein for Sentient.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Salmonella, campylobacter, listeria and E. coli are among the leading bacterial causes of foodborne illnesses resulting in hospitalizations and death. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Foodborne illnesses from meat and poultry products kill thousands of people a year and a new report from the Government Accountability Office offers w…


Environment

play sound

About 20% of fish caught in the wild are not used to feed people across the world but a recent study found the unused portions of fish prepared for th…

Environment

play sound

By Seth Millstein for Sentient.Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Ohio News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaborat…


Social Issues

play sound

The United Auto Workers union is negotiating its first union contract with Volkswagen at its Chattanooga plant, covering more than 4,000 members…

As of last October, 775,000 Washington state students have access to school meals. (New Africa/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Legislation in Olympia would make school meals free for every student. Senate Bill 5352 would ensure every student has access to free breakfast and …

Social Issues

play sound

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services are working together to find homes for foster-care childre…

Environment

play sound

North Dakota lawmakers are still sorting out a thorny agricultural issue getting to the heart of local zoning restrictions for animal feedlot operatio…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021