Today the Des Moines Register is
running my opinion piece on the spiritual pollution of high-density
hog farms. It is attached and reproduced below. As the
editors note in their headline introducing the essay, it is "the
most damning argument against large hog confinements." Feel
free to circulate it broadly.
The editors apparently timed the
publication of this essay to coincide with today's meeting of the
Iowa Environmental Protection Commission to consider the state
Department of Natural Resources proposal to give the agency more
flexibility in evaluating construction-permit applications for new
livestock operations.
Steven
Druker
_______________________________________
NOTE:
The opinion piece reproduced below is running in the Des Moines
Register today (January 17, 2006). It is preceded by the heading
with which it is introduced in the online edition of the Opinion
Section headline page. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=OPINION
Columnists
- opinion
Even with all the
environmental pollution they cause, the most damning argument against
large hog confinements is the way we the animals are treated. Ponder
this: How would Jesus farm?
..
.. ..
Iowa View: Do hog confinements pollute the
spirit?
By STEVEN
DRUKER
SPECIAL TO THE
REGISTER
January
17, 2006
Amid all the controversy
about high-density hog confinements, one key point has been largely
ignored: that no matter how foul their discharge into our waters or
how vile their stench in the nostrils of neighbors, their most severe
form of pollution is spiritual.
They blight the soul of
any society that supports them because they flagrantly violate
fundamental ethical principles, principles that did not spring from
the minds of animal-welfare activists but that are firmly embedded
within the Bible.
While the Bible proclaims
human dominion over animals and recognizes our rights to harness their
strength and consume their flesh, these rights are clearly conditioned
on treating them kindly. Not only does the Bible forbid causing
animals unnecessary pain, it repeatedly instructs us to consider their
needs and uphold their welfare.
For instance, Deuteronomy
22:10 prohibits yoking an ox with a donkey. Commentators recognize
this rule aims to prevent suffering, because the smaller, weaker
donkey will be strained through linkage with the ox. Deuteronomy 25:4
bans another form of unkindness by declaring, "You shall not
muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain." While the former
rule respects the distinct natures of animals, this one protects their
natural desires from being unfairly frustrated, even if it would be
more cost-effective to do so.
Through these examples,
the Bible teaches that besides refraining from unnecessary physical
force, we must also avoid subjecting animals to less blatant forms of
distress, psychological as well as physical. Moreover, in Exodus 23:5,
the Bible imposes a duty to alleviate an animal's suffering when we
encounter it, even if we in no way caused the
predicament.
Although the Bible also
contains rules about animals that pertain specifically to the Jewish
people, those that command kindness toward them express universal
principles and extend to humankind. By urging the Jews to uphold the
laws of the Torah, Jesus endorsed these rules of compassion. There's
no indication his disciples ever questioned their validity for
gentiles.
From a biblical
perspective, hogs crammed into industrial confinements are being
unconscionably abused. These creatures are as intelligent and
sensitive as dogs, yet they are condemned to incessant misery in
conditions that deny their needs and thwart their natures. For
instance, the sows are constrained in iron cages so tight they cannot
turn around, and can barely move. In their futile struggle to do so,
they incur continual stress, and often broken legs and lesions as
well.
Overall, the treatment is
so cruel that Matthew Scully, former deputy director of presidential
speech-writing for George W. Bush, has declared: "Devils charged
with designing a farm could hardly have made it more
severe."
Every legislator and
citizen who has condoned these farms should ask him or herself what if
the next time officials from the Department of Natural Resources
inspected one, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Jesus walked beside them? Even if
the state inspectors found no infraction of earthly laws, it's folly
to think the heavenly inspectors would be pleased. The harshest
protests of environmentalists would seem mild alongside the scathing
rebuke that would be hurled at all who have perpetrated or facilitated
such an abomination.
High-density hog
confinements stink to high heaven - and it's high time those who
seek to serve the Lord on Earth woke up and did something about
it.
Until Iowa, Illinois and
other states that promote this continuous cruelty impose a ban on new
confinements and implement a concrete plan for dismantling those
already in operation, they will remain guilty of gross hypocrisy,
professing to honor the Bible while fostering widespread desecration
of some of its basic ethical principles.
STEVEN M. DRUKER is an
attorney who lives in Fairfield.
The Iowa Environmental
Protection Commission today will consider state Department of Natural
Resources Director Jeff Vonk's proposal to give the agency more
flexibility in evaluating construction-permit applications for new
livestock operations as well as manure-management plans.
The meeting starts at 10
a.m. at the Air Quality Building, 7900 Hickman Road, Urbandale. Public
participation is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Final action on the proposal
is not expected until this spring.
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