Elections, Puppies & Food

I hate politics. I am sick of the several times a day phone calls from a senator who otherwise can’t be bothered to listen – he lost in a landslide so apparently others didn’t like the tactics either.Often things aren’t talked about enough…as this blog touches on.

Recently I did an entry about why we do this – but it’s more at stake than just that and the elections underscored that. In great waves career politicians were fired. There’s other issues that perhaps weren’t seen as much. Missouri city residents dictated to the rest of the state and indeed the country new legislation. Breeders who purchased land hundreds of miles from the cities to breed purebred dogs now find themselves as commercial breeders facing expensive overhauls. You see, lawyers and lobbyist organizations know more about proper care of dogs than do veterinarians and breeders. This doesn’t touch production of mutts, it doesn’t affect shelters that can’t afford or have no room to take in more dogs. Instead it tells purebred breeders how many dogs they can have and under what care. Now who is going to pay for it? And what state is next?

What happens when these same situations are applied to the food supply? “It sounds good so yea we’ll vote for that” without looking further or listening to those involved. A post by Elizabeth on a forum made the point “Go to an elementary school in an urban area and ask the younger kids where milk comes from. You would be surprised how many will tell you that it comes from a box or the store, and won’t believe you when you tell them it comes from a cow. The ones that do know where it comes from will tell you that the cows are abused because “mommy/daddy took me to see Food Inc and they said so”. It’s sad.”

I’ve asked several times who produces your food to get people to think. If a farmer has a 200×300′ dry lot that he feeds calves or hogs in – a ‘feedlot’ – should the farmer be banned? These are questions left to those in the cities who mostly don’t want to think about it or talk about it but do vote on it – and without understanding what all points are don’t see it affects their food choices.

Let’s suppose you like lamb. Let’s suppose you have a farm that raises sheep and sells lamb. Many keep predator losses to a minimum by using guardian dogs and, with quality guardian dogs in demand they’re adding to farm income by breeding and selling puppies. These pups are raised from day one in the barn, which even in the best of barns is not climate controlled or sterile. They also might have herding dogs and train and sell puppies to started working dogs for herding. These are included in “puppy mill” and “commercial breeding” scopes. It’s not just dogs in cages and filthy conditions – it’s any breeder they disagree with and any conditions they disagree with which includes raising dogs outside in a barn. And a veterinarian is not qualified to say that is a good situation!

Again – no one wants to see animals abused. But many don’t to see them killed because of elimination in politics either. They don’t want to see limits reduced which means people with 4 dogs now must get rid of 2 which can mean taking them to the shelter – which are overcrowded and immune from the same legislation and also feeds into the breeding is horrible statistics.

So eliminate those working dogs – who works 24/7 to keep predators out of the field? Who pays for the help to gather the sheep the dogs used to do? And if that doesn’t happen…the sheep breeder no longer produces sheep – and you don’t have lamb.

Now insert cattle for beef and dairy. Insert chickens…which many laws already forbid in urban areas so you can’t raise your own in the back yard. If the people you get your food from can’t afford to produce it or can’t legally do so how much will you pay and where will it come from?

How comfortable are you with no choices? How much judgment will you take? Voting and elections are important and those in agriculture pay a price far more than many realize.