Gestation stalls like the one pictured above have become a fixture of the debate over animal welfare. Photo courtesy of Katie O’Brien.
This is the first of a three-part series on animal welfare.
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Disagreements between the Humane Society of the United States and animal agriculture aren’t going away any time soon. But one group, Protect the Harvest, has entered the fracas on behalf of livestock producers across the country.
Protect the Harvest Senior Consultant Wayne Yocum explained his group’s conviction that most animal rights groups such as HSUS, PETA and even the ALF have the same core beliefs.
Yocum elaborates:
However HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle disputes the correlation:
While it’s true that in 2004, Pacelle told the Washington Post that, “if we believe in evolution, then we believe that humans come from other animals and the differences between us and them are differences of degree and not kind,” Pacelle is also careful to point out that the idea that bringing up evolution as a basis for animal welfare philosophy is beside the point.
Though he highlights Pacelle’s comments about evolution as the foundation of HSUS’ thinking, Yocum also points out that Protect the Harvest doesn’t feel that the animal welfare debate is extending into a conversation about the origins of life.
Check out our website next week for Part 2 of this continuing report on animal welfare.
