Animal Cruelty People

Arsonists don’t reflect most animal lovers

   On Sept. 27, an “animal rights group” apparently set fire to a local fur sales and trapping equipment business outside of Caldwell. Ouch.

   Do I wish this local business engaged in an activity other than one that has currently outgrown the “legal historical value” of trapping for human provision and monetary gain? Yes.

   Does my heart agree with the argument versus the cruel and unnecessary taking of animal life? Yes.

   Do I agree with the actions of this extreme NAAL Arson Unit group? No.

   Currently there are several organizations and individuals in our area working through legal and educational channels to protect the life situation of our wildlife and other animals. The public will hopefully distinguish these from the extremist groups.

   Animal rights and welfare adherents take a variety of forms. There are many ways to work for the humane treatment of animals based on nonviolent methods.

   Two wrongs do not equal one right. Not a single lost animal life is restored by violent and illegal protest. Actions such as this are both ineffective and harmful to the true animal welfare movement.

   Sara Lee, Caldwell

October good time to consider farm animals

   October is turning into “food” month, beginning with World Vegetarian Day and World Farm Animals Day on Oct. 1 and 2, continuing with World Food Day on Oct. 16 and culminating with Food Day on Oct. 24.

   World Farm Animals Day (www. WFAD.org) is perhaps the most dramatic of these observances. It celebrates the lives, exposes the abuses and mourns the slaughter of billions of sentient animals raised for food. Recent undercover investigations showed male baby chicks suffocated in plastic garbage bags or ground to death, pigs clobbered with metal pipes, and cows skinned and dismembered while still conscious.

   Numerous studies have linked consumption of animal products with elevated risk of chronic killer diseases. Animal agriculture accounts for more water pollution than any other human activities. A 2007 United Nations report blamed it for 18 percent of greenhouse gases.

   No humane welfare reform proposed thus far has alleviated the suffering of a single animal. Improvements in medical and environmental technology cannot possibly keep pace with the devastating impacts of meat consumption.

   The good news is that dropping animals from our menus works beautifully on all these counts. Lots of recipes and helpful hints are at www.tryveg.com  .

   Gil Nieter, Boise


Boy, some folks go absolutely crazy when it comes to animals.  They burned down a fireworks business cause these folks were curing and buying animal hides and such.  These people hate hunters too.  They think they are cowards and that the poor little deers and elks and mooses and bears and cougars and bobcats simply do not have a chance once we enter the forest.  "Run Bambi, run."  Hunters are painted with a terrible brush that says we are nothing short of criminals.


So, let's take hunters for example.  I am one.  I love to hunt.  I love getting out there before dawn and seeking to down an elk or deer.  I eat what I shoot and so do most hunters and if they do not, most of us leave the meat with groups who need the food.


Hunters are conservationists.  At the beginning of the 20th century, the big game animal count was horribly tiny.  We farmers, ranchers, miners and pioneers killed off most of the big game animals in the lower 48.  Hunters did not do this, neither did trappers.  Hunters and trappers were just as horrified by this devastation as everyone else and that's when groups like the Boone and Crockett Club was started.  Today, there are many of these hunting/fishing groups throughout America.  They are dedicated to the preservation of all big game animals and sport fishing, and upland game bird conservation.  They actually buy habitat and leave it fallow just for animals and birds so they will be available for hunting and fishing later.  Without these groups, there probably would be no animals at all.


Then there is the fees hunters pay and trappers pay to go hunting and trapping.  These fees go to the Fish and Game state organizations to manage game and fish in your respective states.  Without these fees, there would be no management and there would be no game/fish in your respective states.  Ordinary people who have no interest in fishing and hunting simply will not lay out cash to support wildlife.  Not to the extent that hunters and trappers do every year so that Fish and Game can manage the game and fish.


I doubt very much a hunter or trapper is a coward.  Keep in mind, they are armed!  I wouldn't call 'em cowards to their faces.


Now let's talk about slaughter houses that process farm animals for consumption.  In order for us to have that rib-eye steak, something had to die, preferably a steer.  When we go to Wendy's for a burger, something had to die to make that hamburger.  When we go to Kentucky Fried Chicken, a chicken had to die to provide that succulent drumstick for you.


The upsetting thought for the Cruelty Folks is the way in which these animals die.  Let me say this, if an animal is cruelly killed, the meat will be no good.  Fear creates the glands to produce powerful drugs that are not conducive to good meat on the table.  It makes no sense to torture animals, and I would say few slaughter houses do that.  If they do, they are not going to be in business long because meat buyers for large groceries will not buy meat that is not tender because their consumers will not buy their product either and that's bad for business.


I buy my meat from a small butcher/slaughter business that buy its beefs from farmers and they personally slaughter and cut and package that animal themselves and they do it with love and caring.  They do not torture the animal prior to their deaths and the meat is always tender and I will always buy from them even though they are not 'handy' for me to get to.  If more folks did what I do, there would be no terrible slaughter businesses out there.


It is unfortunate that there are businesses that torture animals, but there are sadists everywhere who demean the smallest and the most unassuming of us.  I hate 'em too.
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