OLATHE, Kan. – Animal welfare groups, while seemingly pushy to get their points across, are also wise enough to claim anything that is left out there for them to take.
“If there’s any slack out in the rope, we’ll never get it back,” said Dan Thomson, one of two Kansas State University speakers at the Animal Health Corridor Lecture Series, held Oct. 22 at K-State’s Olathe campus.
“If you had asked a decade ago if we’d be in animal welfare, I’d have said no. But we’ve been drug into it.”
Thomson, a veterinarian and director of the Beef Cattle Institute at K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, shared the stage with Glynn Tonsor, associate professor in K-State’s Department of Agricultural Economics.
Of the 100 in attendance, nearly three-fourths were in the animal industry but not as producers. They included educators, agribusiness personnel, financial officers and consultants. Thomson and Tonsor made it clear that attempts to challenge producers in how animals are treated aren’t going to disappear.
“There’s growing interest by the public that they want to know more,” Tonsor said. “I don’t see it going away soon. It will be useful if all of us come to terms with that.”
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