Media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2001

Campaign to Recognize Farm Animals as Sentient Beings
Launched in United States
Mary Tyler Moore to Serve as Honorary Chair

Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal protection organization, is launching a new campaign to have farm animals recognized as “sentient beings” in the United States. The campaign is part of a growing popular interest in preventing farm animal suffering in America. The website, www.SentientBeings.org, will be online on August 4th, 2001.

Mary Tyler Moore, the campaign's honorary chair, states, “Farm animals, like all animals, have feelings, and they should be protected from cruelty. But, unfortunately, on today's factory farms, these gentle creatures are commonly treated like commodities rather than as living, feeling animals. As a civilized nation, we have an ethical obligation to prevent animal cruelty and to recognize animals, including farm animals, as sentient beings who are capable of feeling pain and suffering.”

The European Union formally recognizes farm animals as “sentient beings,” but no such recognition currently exists in the United States. However, recent events indicate a growing concern on the part of consumers, businesses, and influential political leaders in the United States. Both McDonald's and Burger King have made public statements urging improvements in the way farm animals are treated, and, on July 9th, Senator Robert Byrd, President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate, gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor during which he derided the cruelty of factory farming. He concluded, “Barbaric treatment of helpless, defenseless creatures must not be tolerated even if these animals are being raised for food—and even more so, more so. Such insensitivity is insidious and can spread and is dangerous. Life must be respected and dealt with humanely in a civilized society.” Again, earlier this week, Senator Byrd spoke about farm animal welfare on the floor of the U.S. Senate and criticized factory farms for treating animals as “nothing more than unfeeling commodities.”

Shockingly, while other developed countries have enacted legislation to protect farm animals, anti-cruelty laws in the United States have actually been amended to exclude farm animals over the past ten years. The Sentient Beings campaign seeks to improve the status of farm animals in the United States and to foster basic legal reforms.

Detailed information about inhumane farming practices, which are common in the United States, is available online at: www.freefarmanimals.org and www.factoryfarming.com. More information about Farm Sanctuary is available at www.farmsanctuary.org.