By Mike Barnett
I have a double-dose of fed up. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), as well as other animal rights groups, continue to mislead the public on animal abuse and food safety with today’s release of an undercover video of an egg production facility in Texas.

On one hand I’m sick of those bad players in the livestock industry who mistreat their animals.  On the other, I’m sick of the animal rights activist groups who promote these isolated incidents as an indictment of the entire meat and egg industry.

By Mike Barnett

You might be a redneck if your dinner ever mooed, oinked or clucked. That’s a new twist as animal activists continue to use cruelty in animals in Texas and other states as a reason for you to quit eating meat.

I never heard Jeff Foxworthy use that line. But it’s a sentiment expressed by Bryan Monell, an activist who has frequently obtained illicit employment at farms and research facilities in order to obtain undercover video footage. He mocked the work of both farmers and researchers, as reported by the Animal Agriculture Alliance, a non-profit group who communicates the important role livestock agriculture plays in our nation’s economy.

By Mike Barnett

Nature has a way of teaching lessons. If only we will listen.

I was visiting a friend in Austin this weekend, taking a dip in the pool, when we noticed a flurry of activity in the branches of one of the many live oaks dotting the landscape. Close inspection revealed two green heron chicks, big, fluffy, agile puffballs that could scurry the branches close to the nest, but were not yet ready to fly.

The not-so-tiny birds were obviously upset, crying out over and over again with a sound only described as a hiss, kuck, kuck…  Wings flapping, extreme agitation…  Hiss, kuck, kuck… Over and over again.

By Gene Hall

Those of us interested in preventing cruelty to animals in the Texas livestock industry have watched with interest as the drama in Ohio has played out in recent days. Apparently, an agreement has been struck that may eventually hamstring the livestock industry in

By Mike Barnett

PETA is blowing smoke again.

Which isn’t unusual, because the radical animal rights group is always up to something. More times than not their caustic cauterwaulings are aimed at animal agriculture.

Such as their latest stunt. After learning that the national railroad Amtrak is conducting tests of a beef tallow-based biofuel on its route from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, PETA protested. Big surprise. PETA wrote a letter to Amtrak’s CEO Joseph Boardman, offering to wrap the train with an ad touting the environmental benefits of a vegan diet. The ad would read, “Go vegan. Get on track to save the planet! PETA.”