New Jersey Department of Agriculture Criticized for it's Inhumane Standards

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) was required by the legislature to develop “standards for the humane raising, keeping, care and treatment, marketing and sale of domestic livestock.” Ironically, NJDA’s “humane” standards explicitly allow cruel factory farming practices.

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture states, “These standards are not intended to modify those routine animal agriculture practices that are performed each day by farmers...” Shockingly, NJDA fails to acknowledge that certain farming practices are cruel or that inhumane practices should be prohibited, not endorsed, by NJDA’s humane standards.

The NJDA adopts the guidelines of the American Veal Association word for word, promoting the inhumane practice of tethering and confining calves in crates for their entire lives, while feeding them an iron and fiber deficient diet to produce veal.

In the case of egg laying chickens, the NJDA considers it acceptable to starve hens for up to 14 days. This cruel industry practice, called “forced molting”, shocks the birds’ bodies into a new egg laying cycle.

With regard to female breeding pigs, the NJDA endorses the use of gestation crates, two foot wide enclosures that are just larger than the pigs’ bodies, where the animals are confined for most of their lives.

The NJDA explicitly allows the transport and slaughter of animals who are “emmaciated,” the inhumane tail docking of dairy cows, despite the fact that this practice was recently condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Thousands of citizens concerned about factory farming cruelty have contacted the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. They have pointed out that the department has failed to fulfill its legal obligation to produce “standards for humane raising, keeping, care, treatment, marketing, and sale of domestic livestock”, and urged that it explicitly prohibit cruel factory farming devices, including veal crates and gestation crates.