I understand that you do not control who can or cannot buy stock in your company. You do, however, have the ability to listen and agree, or listen and say no to ideas brought forth by those stockholders.
I am all for the ethical treatment of animals, but not the PETA way. They, like the Humane Society of the United States, would like to see an end to animal use. You let PETA in the door, and that was a mistake. By taking their resolution seriously, you have given them permission to spin tales of abuse and doom for animals. What's next? Are you going to become an entirely vegetarian restaurant? Are you going to start serving a nice big glass of
breast milk with your meals?
I don't go into your restaurant and tell you how to prepare and serve my food. I'm not in the restaurant business. Why should someone who has never been to my farm, or probably any farm, be able to tell me how I should best raise my animals? We've all seen the videos of workers mistreating animals. Does that mean all dairies abuse animals? We've all heard stories of waiters spitting in food and flies landing in deep fryers. Does that mean all restaurants operate that way? Of course not! What you have done is let PETA convince you that some livestock is abused and given them room to convince you that we are all bad.
I realize that, according to PETA, I am the worst offender. We dairy farmers take innocent calves away from their mothers and proceed to steal their milk. Have you ever taken a minute to wonder why we do things a certain way? Did you know that most dairy calves won't nurse from their mothers? In the 5 years I've been feeding calves only a handful of those calves actually nursed. I've seen more calves killed by their mothers laying on them, than calves that actually figured out how to nurse. I guess shame on me for
separating those calves and feeding and caring for them.
Before you let PETA control your decisions any further, take a step back and ask why animals are raised the way they are. If you don't know the answer, find out, but don't ask PETA. Ask those of us who work hard every day to feed the world. As for me, I won't be setting foot in your restaurants any time soon.
In case you were wondering, in this picture Cole is using the "90" tractor to bail hay, then chop silage into the silage wagon while he's injecting manure and lastly cutting hay. The last one is a little out of order, but then again, I don't know too many farmers that are that efficient.
