Animal-rights activists pushing Christie to embrace pork
The push to convince Gov. Chris Christie to approve a law prohibiting gestation crates used by the pork industry is coming to the governor's home base of Morris County on Saturday as the Humane Society of the United States "Great Crate Challenge" arrives in Madison.
Representatives of the Humane Society and other animal-rights activists will be at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, where they will invite individuals to step into small crates, built from metal bars and adjusted to human proportions, that are similar to the ones used by the pork industry to confine pigs for months at a time before they are slaughtered and processed for public consumption.
St. Hubert's also operates a center in the North Branch section of Branchburg.
The challenge arrives at St. Hubert's just as the Dec. 1 deadline approaches for Christie to either sign or veto a law passed by the New Jersey legislature in October that would direct the state Board of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture to adopt regulations concerning confinement of pregnant sows during gestation.
Christie vetoed a similar bill last year but has not indicated his intentions this time around. Matthew Dominguez, public policy manager for the Humane Society's Farm Animal Protection Department, said he has been in New Jersey for 40 days to promote passage of the bill.
"And I won't leave until he signs it," said Dominguez, who works out of the nonprofit organization's national headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md.
SEE ALSO: >> Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show"
Dominguez said he's visited the Statehouse in Trenton several times, and has met with the governor's liaison on agricultural issues, but "He has been tight-lipped and didn't give us much indication of what the governor would do."
Reports have surfaced that Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad reportedly asked Christie to veto the ban, which potentially could harm Iowa's nation-leading pork industry.
"(Christie's) gone to Iowa and told them what he is going to do for them while he is ignoring the issue at home and saying nothing here, which is very disappointing," Dominguez said.
Opponents have criticized the crate process for years, calling it inhumane. Event organizers hope that locking people inside the crates, even for just a few minutes, will give them a small taste of what the pigs experience in their short lives.
Saturday, people are invited to try one of the crates for themselves. Dominguez said 15-20 people took the challenge last week at a similar rally in Eatontown, including Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), who was the primary sponsor of the S998 bill awaiting Christie's decision.
"It's very confining," Lesniak said after his brief incarceration. "I couldn't imagine spending months, years or longer in one. It's just totally inhumane and immoral."
Dominguez said nine states now have similar bans. New Jersey, with an inventory of about 9,000 pigs (of which only 8 percent are kept for breeding), ranks 40th out of the 50 states in pork production, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
No pig farmers in New Jersey use gestation crates at present, according to the Humane Society, but another Chrstie veto, Dominguez said, would be "a welcome mat for the pork industry to come in and use the crates."
A survey by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research of 625 New Jersey voters in September showed that 97 percent were in favor of the ban. A Change.org online petition urging Christie to sign the bill into law had 129,691 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
"We are trying to get people who otherwise don't know about the issue a chance to learn from personal experience," Dominguez said. "The pigs spend up to four years in the crates, which are too small for them to even turn around in. We are asking people to spend up to four minutes, one minute for every year. Most people can't take it more than a minute or so. Imagine four years in one."
Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com.