A group of Nebraska farmers who are currently affiliated with the Humane Society of the United States has sent Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman a letter objecting to his description of the HSUS and challenging his claims that the animal rights group opposes all agricultural production in the state of Nebraska.

Over the past several years, the relationship between animal rights groups and the agricultural community has grown increasingly strained. In states like Iowa and Florida, undercover animal rights videos have provoked state legislatures into banning undercover videotaping. In Ohio and California, animal rights groups have used petition drives to mandate better conditions for livestock in local farms.

In Nebraska, fearing a potential petition drive by the HSUS, several agricultural groups, supported by the governor, have banded together to oppose changes to animal welfare laws. The governor even went as far as to say that he would “kick [the HSUS’s] butt.”

In response, the HSUS and their allies in the agricultural industry have written a letter to the governor protesting his claim that their motives are fundamentally opposed to the farm sector. The letter states, in part, “While The HSUS is unapologetically opposed to four industrial agriculture practices: battery cages for egg-laying hens, gestation crates for breeding sows, veal crates for dairy offspring, and tail docking for dairy cows, we are not trying to end animal agriculture here in Nebraska or for that matter anywhere else.”

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer