New York Times: U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for Profit

[lizbud]

Seems like this department (study) has crossed over the line from valid research into out & out cruelty. It should be stopped immediately.
What gives them the right to play God? There is no need to re-engineer animals to suit human greed. I wonder how many other government
departments are running on "auto pilot" without any outside scrutiny? There was a video connected to this article where they talked to one
of the scientists involved with these experiments.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/multime...pgtype=article

[Lady's Human]

Seems like this department (study) has crossed over the line from valid research into out & out cruelty. It should be stopped immediately.
What gives them the right to play God? There is no need to re-engineer animals to suit human greed. I wonder how many other government
departments are running on "auto pilot" without any outside scrutiny? There was a video connected to this article where they talked to one
of the scientists involved with these experiments.

The answer to that question? TNTC.

Too many to count.

Long ago the Rural Electrification commission was "ended".

How did it end? It was buried in the Department of Agriculture. It still exists.

Rural America has been electrified for a long time, yet the department in charge of making that happen is still around.

In 1992, well after the Army had eliminated teletypes in the field, they were still training teletype technicians.

Government inertia is a wonderful thing.

[phesina]

Some reader response to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/op...-meat-lab.html

[phesina]

An editorial in today's paper: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/op...onscience.html

Who decides the funding for this horror show travesty? Senate? House? Dept. of Agriculture? Elsewhere? What organization/persons do we contact with our outrage?

[Lady's Human]

An editorial in today's paper: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/op...onscience.html

Who decides the funding for this horror show travesty? Senate? House? Dept. of Agriculture? Elsewhere? What organization/persons do we contact with our outrage?

The funding is decided in the budget, and would be a part of the Ag department budget.

Killing this, however, will likely be a tough row to hoe, particularly with the makeup of the current Congress. I'd start by finding out which committees your rep and senators sit on. If any of them are on the federal oversight committee, they might be able to help.

[phesina]

Thank you, LH!

I just discovered that Michigan's Senator Debbie Stabenow is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

And our new Senator Gary Peters is a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, "the chief oversight committee of the U.S. Senate."

As for the House, no such luck with the Committee on Agriculture or the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

[Lady's Human]

You will probably have better luck in the Senate, as the republicans in the house would be aghast at cutting an Ag department item. The ranking House Republicans are largely from the midwest, and would be disproportionately friendly to Ag programs.