Humane Society speaks out against state grant for TransOva

The Humane Society is opposed to having TransOva Genetics in Sioux Center get a state grant. TransOva officials have threatened to move their operation to another state if Iowa doesn’t come through with help to develop new research labs for the company, and the “Iowa Values” fund created by legislators and approved by the Governor last month could be used for such a state grant. Stephanie Weisenbach, a Des Moines-based spokesperson for the Humane Society, says TransOva’s cloned cattle raise concerns. Weisenbach says the animals are engineered to produce a foreign substance, and she says the genetic experiments can cause severe disability or even death in the animals. Weisenbach says despite all the effort and money spent putting the animals through the cloning experiments, there’s a very small success rate. Weisenbach says TransOva is just one more example to add to the Society’s campaign against corporate agriculture. Weisenbach says corporations don’t necessarily have the best interests of humans or farm animals on their agenda. Eric Woolson, a spokesman for TransOva, says the group’s charges are off-base. Woolson says “TransOva meets all the recognized standards for the care of animals.” Woolson says the TransOva facilities are nothing like the “mass production” confinement houses for hogs. Woolson says the Humane Society is “motivated by its own agenda rather than the facts.” Woolson says the Humane Society is “determined to block any animal-based agriculture in our state” and Woolson says the group “will say anything they think they can get away with.”