FOR RELEASE                                
November 22, 2004

CONTACT: Dave Sebeck
(916) 445-1412

NEW REPORT OUTLINES HEALTH THREATS TO HUMANS,
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS FROM FACTORY FARMING

SACRAMENTO-A new report by the Senate Office of Research (SOR) outlines several public health threats and animal cruelty abuses associated with Confined Animal Facilities, also known as "factory farming."

Senate President pro Tem John Burton, who initiated the report, said it should raise serious concerns for consumers and policymakers.

"We're entering the time of year when, first of all, there are a lot of pneumonia and other respiratory conditions around, and second, when families are out buying meat and poultry for the holiday season," Burton said. "It's important to get families and the state's health regulators the information they need about factory farming and its impact on humans and on the animals."

In California, Confined Animal Facilities are primarily found in the dairy industry, the beef cattle industry and the poultry industry. Factory farming is generally done by large corporate entities, not small family farms.

Among the public health threats from factory farming cited in the report are:

• The massive use of agricultural antibiotics helps give rise to drug resistant bacteria that then endanger humans;
  
  
• Growth hormones fed to animals may act as reproductive toxins and cancer causing agents in humans;

• Liquid waste ponds contaminate water supplies (In 2003 one Northern California dairy spilled 1.3 million gallons of urine and liquefied manure into local waters, including the Sacramento River);
  
  
• Heavy metals and salts used as growth stimulants pollute water supplies;
  
  
• Concentrated agricultural pathogens (including bacteria and fungus) put the elderly, infants and persons with compromised immune systems at increased risk;
  
  
• Ammonium nitrate and other particulates pollute the air and can be deposited on land as far as 300 miles away;
  
  
• Liquid waste lagoons emit volatile compounds including hydrogen sulfide, endotoxins and methane.

Among the animal cruelty issues associated with factory farming cited in the report are:

• Beak tips are removed and claws amputated to prevent animals in too-close quarters from pecking each other to death;
  
  
• Male chicks are destroyed at a wholesale level (up to 12 million per year in California according to one watchdog group);
  
  
• Cutting off dairy cows' tails for hygiene and to make milking from behind easier leads to increased fly infestation on animals;
  
  
• After extended confinement and light deprivation in darkened warehouses, "spent" laying hens emerge emaciated, most or all their feathers missing, bodies bruised and cut and unable to walk without stumbling.

The SOR report notes responsible businesses including Whole Foods Markets (38 stores in California, seven more in development) and Trader Joe's (100 stores in California) are increasingly turning to healthier and cruelty-free products.

"We aren't saying don't eat meat or poultry or don't raise meat or poultry, but the people need to be aware of, and the Legislature and the Governor should pursue, the public health and animal cruelty impacts of factory farming," Burton said.

A copy of the report is available at: (www.sen.ca.gov/sor) - click on Reports, then by Subject then Environment, then Confined Animals.