Leaders of the Iowa Farm Bureau are a bit concerned over a ballot initiative that passed in Florida a week ago, banning the use of a type of hog confinement. Mindy Larson-Poldberg, the bureau’s national affairs director, says animal rights groups got the issue on the ballot and voters approved prohibition of gestation crates and tethers on pregnant hogs.Larson-Pohlberg says those crates are used by many Iowa farmers and they’re not inhumane.Gestation crates are approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association. The crates minimize aggression and competition between sows, they protect hogs from health issues and provide each animal with less stress and allow them daily access to the right amounts of food and water. Larson-Pohlberg says Florida voters may have been led astray by the language on the ballot initiative itself since it made it sound like the use of gestation crates was inhumane, when the A-V-M-A has actually approved of their use for many reasons.
