THE PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

“The AABP Mission Statement: Increase Awareness and Promote Leadership”

        As I begin this month’s newsletter, I must first correct a subconscious mistake in my last message to you. In describing the endemic disease in badgers in the United Kingdom, I inadvertently said that the badgers carried rabies … in fact, they carry tuberculosis and serve as a reservoir for infecting cattle with that disease. The UK is fortunate in that rabies is not present in that country. I think we all know that and I still wonder how I mis-wrote that sentence … oh well!!?!

        As I completed this column in February, my last sentence was “… all of our efforts are focused on how to best represent our members’ interests in the increasingly complex socio-political milieu that modern animal agriculture finds itself.” Given the intense focus that has been levied on animal agriculture in the last month, this sentence couldn’t have been more prophetic!

        First, a major television network in the U.S. ran an on “The Ugly Side of Milk.” If you didn’t see this “news piece,” I suggest that you take a look at http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/animal-rights-us-dairy-industry/story?id=9658866. The story was based on undercover videos taken by a member of a group called Mercy for Animals, and suggested that dairy cows in the United States were living in filthy, overcrowded indoor environments and kept “perpetually pregnant.” There were graphic videos of approx. 6+ month old Holstein heifers being dehorned using electric dehorners and having their tails docked using a Burdizzo and cauterization … both techniques took place without any type of anesthesia and restraint was applied through a halter and “snugging up” the animals against a fence. For many of us veterinarians, these techniques might seem relatively commonplace and, depending on one’s opinion, perhaps appropriate to the situation. But, to the everyday television viewer, the 98% of the public that has virtually no idea of where their food comes from or how farm animals are managed, these practices could easily elicit a more visceral response of an abuse-tolerant, if not barbaric, industry.

        The second major event this month was the CBS News two-part “special investigation” into “a possible threat to [our] health: antibiotics” (in the words of the report). The telecast focused on the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and enhancing feed efficiency and strongly implied that this use, particularly in feed, may be increasing the presence of MRSA in our food, as well as increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Livestock agriculture is described as “factory farms” where “animals are packed into confinement pens” and “antibiotics are also used to keep disease from spreading like wildfire.”

        While many of us cattle veterinarians may scoff at the lack of scientific rigor or understanding of animal management that these reports exhibited, and we may chafe at the not-so-hidden agendas of the authors of these broadcasts, can we simply dismiss them as inaccurate and inconsequential? The answer of course is a resounding “NO.” As I mentioned in my remarks at the AABP Annual Meeting in Omaha, we in animal agriculture are confronted by a veritable “tsunami” of attacks from all fronts. Activists of many types now see modern agriculture as exploitative of animals, natural resources, the environment, and the food-consuming public. Through our AABP Committees, Executive Committee, and Board of Directors, and by working closely with food animal organizations, AVMA, AASV, the Animal Agriculture Coalition and others, we have responded quickly and forcefully to refute the misinformation that these reports have spread. These efforts have been part of our responsibility to “increase awareness and promote leadership for issues critical to cattle industries,” the second part of our AABP mission statement.

        While these AABP office-based efforts on behalf of all of us in AABP and animal agriculture have been useful and appropriate, I suggest that they are simply not sufficient. Through market research and consumer focus groups, the public has consistently voiced its deep respect for veterinarians and the veterinary perspective. When a veterinarian speaks, people listen! So I believe that the time has come for each of us to exhibit the leadership that animal agriculture so desperately needs right now. For example, we need to be savvy to “how things look” and, when we are on a client’s operation and see even the slightest sign of what could be interpreted as animal abuse (perhaps the result of frustration or lack of perspective), we need to remind them that this type of behavior is probably not how they would like to be seen if a camera were present (and every cell phone now has a camera …). Each of us needs to become knowledgeable about the issues of the day and seek out opportunities to educate the non-agricultural public via presentations at various community fora (like Rotary club luncheons, high school and college classes, newspaper editorials, etc.) on the remarkable success story that is modern livestock agriculture. For, I contend that we are more than just cattle doctors, I believe that we are an integral part of a system that provides the world with the safest, most abundant, and most affordable food in the history of mankind … and we should be proud to proactively tell that story! Education can make a difference. What do you think?

Roger Saltman