Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

Illinois has an animal-abuse law that makes it a felony to abuse animals. I
know it's law because it gets cited all the time (as in the recent case of
the creature who dragged his neighbor's golden retriever to its death). I've
done a few searches through the Admin Code but haven't managed to get the
right key words yet, so I don't know how the statute reads.


I can see the point of this:

<<(c) In the case of pet or domestic animals, access to a barn, dog house or
other enclosed structure sufficient to protect the animal from wind, rain,
snow or sun and which has adequate bedding to protect against cold and
dampness.>>

OTOH, my guard dog puppy -- now around 80 lbs -- will NOT use his nice igloo
and prefers to lie flat out in the snow in the front yard. I've dragged him
into the barn on especially awfully nights -- during freezing rain, for
example -- but he'd rather be outside. What's a mother to do? I'm pretty
sure he's not cold; he has a deep undercoat. I guess I'm just lucky that my
neighbors are farmers, or I'd probably be talking to the animal cruelty
people.

I have to agree that animal cruelty laws -- depending on their content --
can be justified in several ways. People who torture animals are quite
likely to have no qualms about doing the same to humans. Of course, many
gray areas exist. For example, for years a livestock farmer not far from me
maintained a herd of about 50 cows and calves. He had no shelter for them,
and only one pasture, which was severely overgrazed. My father, who was
definitely not a bleeding heart, remarked many times on how repulsive he
thought the conditions for that man's livestock were.

Dad had a cow-and-calf herd of about 100 total for many years. We did all
the right things -- rotated pastures, checked 3X a day during calving
season, made sure rations were correct for breeding stages, etc. It made Dad
grind his teeth to see someone penning cows and calves in a paddock where
the mud was knee deep, and the hay looked second rate. So far as I know, no
one ever made a complaint.

Personally, I want the meat I eat to have had a happy life -- but perhaps
I'm prejudiced from all those years of checking the herd.

Marie