USDA’s Meat Animal Research Center in the Nebraska plains is re-engineering cattle, pigs and sheep “to fit the needs of the 21st Century…animals that produce more offspring, yield more meat and cost less to raise,” says a front-page New York Times story. Is investigation “shows these endeavors have come at a steep cost to the center’s animals, which have been subjected to illness, pain and premature death, over many years.” Ewes bear more lambs than they can care for, says the Times, and cows deliver twins and triplets, “which often emerge weakened or deformed, dying in such numbers that even meat producers have been repulsed.”
Federal law sets standards of care for animals but exempts farm animals used in research.The Times says USDA “does not closely monitor the center’s use of animals” and says the facility at Clay Center, Neb, “has become a destination for the kind of high-risk, potentially controversial research that other institutions will not do or are no longer allowed to do.” The newspaper quotes a scientist who worked at the center as saying there is “just a pebble-sized concern” about animal welfare compared to “tons of attention to increasing animal production.”
The Times says “in written responses, Agriculture Department officials said the center abides by federal rules on animal welfare. Many current and former employees vigorously defended the center’s work, saying it has helped improve the lives of animals, and people, around the world.”