Although most pigs used for pork production endure bleak conditions, factory farms abuse breeding sows in ways that are so terrible that the cruelty is among the most egregious factory farming abuses. But there s one issue pending before them that is so basic and moderate, it deserves the universal support of our delegates and senators in Annapolis. And just months after Arizona s landslide vote last November, Smithfield Foods the nation s largest pig producer announced that it is phasing...

Pet food tainted with the industrial chemical melamine reached the hog farms, as well as at least one poultry operation, and has been detected in pigs' urine, U. This new program will target imports of wheat gluten, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, rice bran and rice protein concentrate, along with food that contains those ingredients. The FDA said it is expanding testing for melamine in imported vegetable proteins that are commonly used in food that humans and animals eat. Oregon...

In this morning's column, you quoted an AP report that "melamine was found in pig urine after salvaged pet food was fed to hogs on a California farm that sells pork to people who buy the whole hog. Maybe we can get together with some of our local farmers and supply "certified melamine-free" pig urine for these people in California. Here's an e-mail in regard to a news report relayed in last week's Monday Mail, about the discovery that pet food contaminated with the industrial chemical...

USDA is also offering the expertise and assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service personnel in carrying out any depopulation activities to ensure that animals are euthanized and disposed of in accordance with federal, state and local laws. USDA is also offering the expertise and assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service personnel in carrying out any depopulation activities to ensure that animals are euthanized and disposed of in accordance with...

However, Halstead said the ag department has been working with prosecuting attorneys in 32 counties where swine have been reported, and those prosecutors have agreed not to bring charges against hunters who shoot feral swine. They also carry diseases including brucellosis, trichinosis (transmittable to bears), tuberculosis, and pseudorabies (a strain of rabies found only in swine), which could endanger the state's livestock industry. Halstead said most of the sightings of feral swine in...