AR-News: (US IA) Consumer pressure forcing changes in livestock treatment

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

TAMA, Iowa (AP) -- Livestock producers and slaughterhouses are improving 
their treatment of farm animals because of pressure from animal-welfare groups, 
fast-food restaurants and grocery chains, according to officials in those 
industries.

"There's been a fundamental shift from producers putting out the food and 
saying to the consumer, 'Take it or leave it,"' said Edmond Pajor, an 
animal-welfare researcher at Purdue University. "Now consumers are saying, 'I want my 
food cheap, safe and produced in a certain way.' Consumers have more power, more 
so than they ever used to."'

When Iowa Quality Beef Cooperative bought the old cattle-slaughtering plant 
here, they spent $8 million to make the cattle-handling area more humane. They 
removed the corners from the cattle walkway, so that animals would feel less 
trapped.



full story:

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2004/03/08/news/regional/bb8f11df740f
1cba86256e5100194b0a.txt 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040308/208d731c/attachment.html