Complaints swamp N.J. animal health leaders

Trenton, N.J.-As New Jersey lawmakers edge closer to passing new health regulations for livestock, activists attempt to derail the adoption of what they call "cruel" standards.

In May, the state agriculture department's Division of Animal Health, charged by legislators in 1996 to establish standards for the "humane raising, care, treatment, marketing and sale of domestic livestock," drafted rules published in the New Jersey Register. During a 60-day public response period ending July 4, thousands of e-mails and letters from animal activists rejecting the proposed rules poured into government offices.

The onslaught has hindered the Division of Animal Health's adoption process and the work of Director Dr. Nancy Halpern, who must respond to each critique. Halpern refused to comment on the letters, but Public Information Officer Hope Gruzlovic confirms thousands have been received.

"It's plain harassment," says Dr. David Meirs, an equine practitioner in Cream Ridge, N.J., who authored regulations on humane care for horses. "You can imagine what a couple hundred e-mails a day can do to the workweek. No matter what kind of regulations the department comes up with, these people won't be happy."

What activists want nixed from the standards are allowances for forced molting, gestation crates, veal stalls, tail docking of dairy cattle and hen battery cages. They also object to written warnings for first-time regulatory violators and urge the development of requirements for keeping outdoor animals.

Demand for change

Their argument: While most of the proposed regulations are common in the United States, they "codify practices so cruel that they are banned in many other countries and states and are denounced by the animal welfare experts," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reports.

But even as PETA's Web site claims the standards, if adopted, would give producers "carte blanche to remain indefinitely in the Dark Ages of animal agriculture," a public hearing July 20 at Rutgers University's Cook Campus Center in New Brunswick steered clear of the circus often associated with activist-laden events.

In orderly fashion

"Considering the topic and how emotionally charged it is, it's amazing that the hearing came out as civil as it did," says Meirs, who spoke in favor of the proposed rules. "These regulations have been compiled with the best available scientific input from the veterinary profession and animal scientists. They're scientific, objective, comprehensive and enforceable."

For those reasons, activists likely won't see results from their campaign, says Rick Alampi, head of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association.

"The fact that a group of people is very much opposed to the philosophy of regulations promulgated doesn't mean the state will change or adopt the regulations as drafted," he says.

Final approval of the regulations is expected in the coming months.