Marylee Shrider: Vote no on Prop. 2, an attack on farmers
| Friday, Oct 24 2008 08:46 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:08 PM
Loading Stories
Advertisement
Flash a photo of a dead chicken before our eyes and our collective lower lip trembles, so easily convinced are we that the sins of a few farmers are the standard for most.
Which likely explains why Proposition 2, the Standards for Confining Farm Animals initiative on the ballot this November, is getting widespread support among voters, according to recent polls.
Proposition 2 is a well-meaning measure that would require “calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs be confined in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their wings and turn around freely.”
Sounds reasonable enough. But veal and pork production in California is small, so we’re basically talking about egg production — an already heavily regulated industry that will face dire consequences should the measure pass.
If Proposition 2 commercials are to be believed — with their photos of dead chickens and that hideous, but irrelevant video of the dairy cow and its fork-lift tormentor — animal cruelty is standard operating procedure among California’s egg producers.
Being a city slicker myself, I might have bought into the hype had I not actually visited one of California’s largest egg-producing facilities, which happens to be right here in Kern County.
Demler Enterprises, a respected name in the California egg industry, houses about one million laying hens at its facility in Wasco and another million at its Delano operation. That 2 million, plus the 2.5 million hens housed at Demler family farms in Southern California, account for nearly a quarter of the state’s total number of laying hens.
I visited Demlers’ Delano farm in 2003, at the height of California’s exotic Newcastle disease epidemic. It was a scourge that forced state authorities to destroy more than 3 million chickens and backyard birds, yet Demler’s flocks survived unscathed, due largely to the company’s high standards of cleanliness and care.
Those standards are still in force at the farms, where Demler keeps about 100,000 chickens per hen house. There’s no question the quarters are close, but the chickens are caged with enough room to sit, stand, turn and flap wings, though not all at the same time. The birds are fed and watered daily, are checked regularly by veterinarians and are safe from predators in housing that’s kept at a comfortable 80 degrees year round.
There’s no debeaking at Demler farms, where lights are kept low to keep the chickens calm. It appears to work — the only sounds I heard while there were the contented cluck-cluck-clucking of thousands of chickens.
“If they live well, they produce well,” owner David Demler says. “If they were miserable, production would go down and mortality would go up and we’ve never seen that.”
Should the measure pass, Demler will be required to refit his buildings to allow the birds run of the floors. Such a drastic change would not only force Demler to cut back the number of chickens per house by about 40,000 each, it would make for less sanitary conditions.
The American Veterinary Medical Association agrees with Demler, saying in statements against the measure it would increase the risk of Salmonella contamination in eggs by “putting hens and their eggs in direct contact with feces and other fluids.” Yuck.
The cost to keep chickens in a state of bliss may eventually drive egg producers out of state and will most certainly be handed down to consumers.
Proposition 2 supporters, an idealistic bunch who apparently don’t do much comparison shopping, say the increased cost of eggs would be negligible, but a July study by the University of California Agriculture Issues Center reports that costs could “rise substantially, by at least 25 percent.”
All one must do is check the price of free-range eggs at Albertson’s to know it’s true.
The measure is supported by Kern County’s Sen. Dean Florez who, Demler says, was invited to tour the farm, but never responded.
Proposition 2 is another unfounded attack on California’s farmers and a burden to families already struggling through a tough economy. Don’t buy the hype. Vote no on Proposition 2.
These are Marylee Shrider's opinions, not necessarily The Californian's. Call her at 395-7474 or write mshrider@bakersfield.com.
