If you live in Colorado and care about animals you need to be aware of Proposition 60, which is being misnamed the Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation act. It's not an act, and it...well, let's take a look at it.
First of all, it would remove the "typical animal husbandry" exception from "sexual acts with an animal" and replace it with "For the welfare of the animal." The definition is any penetration of the vagina or anus with a body part or object.
1. Artificial insemination. This would make it nearly impossible for small ranchers to breed, as many can't afford what it takes to keep a bull or boar. Rams and billies are a BIT easier.
2. Pregnancy tests on livestock. Large animals have to be pregnancy tested by using a transrectal ultrasound. You can't just put one on the belly because they're too big. This would make it impossible to give pregnant animals the care they need and impossible to detect twins in horses (of which the best outcome is at least one very stunted foal). The "welfare of the animal" exemption COULD keep you safe. Or it could not.
3. Taking an animal's temperature. No kidding. This would classify the use of a rectal thermometer as bestiality. Because whoever put this together doesn't have a clue about animals. Even by animal rights activist levels, this is ridiculous. You could get away with it if the animal was sick. But there would go the safest way to determine of a mare or cow was ovulating before you introduce them to the male. Btw, a non-receptive mare will do her best to kill a stallion and with hand or corral breeding, it's common for stallions to get hurt. We used to use cheap disposable stallions for this. We don't want to go back to that process.
4. Surgical castration. Yes, this animal rights sponsored initiative would ban the most humane form of castration of large animals. Do you want your next gelding to have been castrated using the much more traumatic banding method? That's the one where they tie a band around the testicles and wait for them to drop off. Smaller animals are castrated using a different method, but the method for surgical castration in livestock, because of their size, involves a small amount of penetration of the anus.
5. One method of spaying mares. When a mare is spayed, which is not a routine operation and is generally done either for medical or behavioral reason, an ovariectomy is done through either an incision or through the vagina. The last is the most common and safest way. It would be legal to spay a mare if she had a tumor or the like. It would not be legal to spay her if she was unridable when in heat.
So, that's all pretty...bad. And given a vet could be convicted of a sex offense, many vets will leave Colorado. Large animal vets would become almost impossible to find and small animal vets might also flee the state. There's also no exemption to any of these for teaching people how to do the procedure. Under this, I'd be some kind of horrible sex offender for having taught a prepubescent child how to take a horse's temperature. (The look on their faces when they find out where it goes...)
Then there's the second part. Clearly, what they intended to do with this was outlaw veal. Which I have mixed feelings about.
But what they actually have in there is a definition of the "natural lifespan" of livestock and a rule that they have to reach a quarter of that.
For cows, they have the natural lifespan defined at 20 years. I'm not a stockman, so I don't know if that's accurate, but it feels right.
Which means that ranchers in Colorado would have to raise cows until 5 years old.
The typical market age of a steer is 24 months.
Economically, unless they can drive cattle out of the state to be slaughtered (and btw, I am opposed to transporting live animals for slaughter any further than necessary), that puts ranchers out of business. They would no longer be able to export to Japan, which is a big market, because the Japanese won't take meat from cattle older than 30 months.
And believe me? You don't want a steak from a 5 year old cow. You even more don't want to pay more for a steak from a 5 year old cow.
So, this thing is this entire mess of even more clueless than animal rights fanatics already are.
If you live in Colorado and somebody asks you to sign this thing, don't. If it ends up on the ballot next year, don't vote yes on it.
It would not protect animals.
It would destroy livelihoods and result in more cruelty. It would destroy not just the ranching industry in Colorado but the horse breeding industry as well. Even if you're a vegetarian, supporting something which would actually increase animal cruelty...
And people are dumb. They may fall for it.
But most people aren't as dumb as the animal rights activists who don't know where the thermometer goes.
