Whether it's dog fighting, illegal tiger killings or abandonment of kittens, stories about animal torture regularly make national news. Interviews with outraged commentators always follow, who can't believe that people would commit such horrible acts and that anyone could do that to innocent animals. Dogs, tigers and kittens and many other animals are well protected by the U.S. legal system and almost everyone takes animal cruelty seriously.
But apparently, chickens, cows, pigs, horses and other "livestock" are not animals under U.S. law and are therefore not deserving of this type of protection or defense. From learning the laws of this country, I learned many things about politics and societal values. I guess you can learn a lot about biology too.
State animal welfare laws protect all animals (all living things) but specifically exempt livestock. Summaries of the laws of each state can be found here. Instead, farm animals are "protected" by state slaughter laws as well as the federal Humane Slaughter Act. These state laws allow slaughter, but purport to minimize the torture the animal experiences while being farmed and killed. The federal slaughter act does the same thing, but does not apply to chickens and other birds. A summary of the state laws can be found here. Even then, violations carry low penalties, and are rarely prosecuted.
When I was growing up, I learned that an animal included, but was not limited to, any of the following:
So now the animal kingdom for children looks like this:
And only a distant memory of the way things "used to be":
Nice work, animal farming industry.
But apparently, chickens, cows, pigs, horses and other "livestock" are not animals under U.S. law and are therefore not deserving of this type of protection or defense. From learning the laws of this country, I learned many things about politics and societal values. I guess you can learn a lot about biology too.
State animal welfare laws protect all animals (all living things) but specifically exempt livestock. Summaries of the laws of each state can be found here. Instead, farm animals are "protected" by state slaughter laws as well as the federal Humane Slaughter Act. These state laws allow slaughter, but purport to minimize the torture the animal experiences while being farmed and killed. The federal slaughter act does the same thing, but does not apply to chickens and other birds. A summary of the state laws can be found here. Even then, violations carry low penalties, and are rarely prosecuted.
When I was growing up, I learned that an animal included, but was not limited to, any of the following:
Now I know that 50% of my assumptions about what animals are were wrong. I now know that these categories of "livestock" or "farm animals" are not in fact animals at all. While New York State did not test this piece of knowledge on the bar exam, I nevertheless thank the U.S. legal system for this valuable piece of education and will be sure to put it on a note card and promptly memorize.
Granted, I got my understanding of the animal kingdom before the age of the Internet. Today, if you Google images of "wild animals," most of the results are photos of these animals in their natural habit, or maybe at the zoo. The same search for "farm animals" returns mostly line drawings or cartoon imitations of a collection of animals you may find on a farm:
Photographs are scarce, with only a few showing happy animals roaming free, and a few "real farm" (aka, factory farm) pictures, showing a modest amount of animal torture. Real life images of the happy farm are long gone.
So now the animal kingdom for children looks like this:
And only a distant memory of the way things "used to be":
Nice work, animal farming industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment