Farm bill bans dog meat, really

I could really care less if we have a farm bill or not. The only issue that even warrants discussion is how to handle crop insurance.

Other than that, every single component of the farm bill (often known as the “free food for freeloaders” bill) could just disappear. It is misleading that it is called the farm bill because 84 percent of the funding goes for food subsidy programs. I also wonder how many people know that the House Ag Committee recently approved an amendment in the bill banning the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat. I would like someone to point out to me where, in the Constitution, does it say the role of government is to create my dining menu?

This ridiculous amendment is not getting much attention from the media and most ag media seems to be afraid to even mention it. I discovered it thanks to Mike Smith’s work with the Nebraska Grocers newsletter where he laid out the dangers of this regulation. I welcomed Mike to my Rural Route Radio program and we discussed it in great depth.

The measure would make it a felony to knowingly slaughter, buy or sell a dog or cat for the purpose of human consumption. Violations would be punishable by a fine or up to a year in prison. This, to me, is a clear sign of the factors of affluence that we are dealing with today. More concerning though is the number of folks who will continue to be silent and afraid to say anything because of how they might be portrayed.

You may be wondering why this amendment was even considered. The research and the information submitted to the committee suggests that in the past 10 years there was one case in Hawaii of two individuals stealing a dog and eating it. In the past 30 years, there may have been four cases of dog meat consumption reported. This is primarily being sold as a “symbolic gesture” to the Asian dog meat trade that we do not accept their practices.

The only way out of this “nanny culture” is a good case of hunger. Who are these elected officials that think they can legislate what I eat, first of all, let alone that of another culture in the Far East? The Denham Dog and Cat Meat Trade Amendment was authored by Congressman Jeff Denham, a Republican from California, with encouragement from the animal rights zealots we are all too familiar with.

My message is not really any different than the same one I have been sharing for 20 years in the fight for horse harvesting on U.S. soil. We have been shouting at the top of our lungs that banning the sale and consumption of horse meat is the first step of incrementalism. Once you start, where does it stop?

If someone has the ability to control your menu and that same someone thinks that cows are causing climate change, do you think they will stop for a second in using the false pretense of “protecting the environment” to eliminate beef from the menu?

There is more to this discussion that we are not having which Smith did a wonderful job positioning during our radio interview. Every single time an undercover video surfaces we say that “we do not support and must get rid of the bad actors in agriculture.” How many things do you do every single week in standard operating procedures on your farm/ranch that, if videoed and edited, could be completely misconstrued in the public eye? Just this past week I had a nursery pig that needed to be euthanized. While blunt force trauma is the best answer and is recommended by the American Veterinary Medical Association, a video of me thumping that pig in the head would result in a viral outcry.

As another example, we got a little behind in working the tail end of our newborn calves so we will get them caught up and worked before we go to grass this week. The mere video of me catching calves, placing a tag in their ear and giving them a life-saving vaccination could cause concern for those that don’t understand.

So where will you draw the line in the sand? We continue to allow these individuals, even our elected officials, to incrementally put us out of business in the U.S. They are making decisions that they have no business making. Isn’t it time we start barking non-stop about the looming threat that is upon us?

Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].