Land Acquisition for Pheasants & The Horse Rides The Bus

Land Acquisition for Pheasants & The Horse Rides The Bus plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report. 

I was not aware that some horses are being used as service animals for the blind and in particular the miniature varieties.  Well now seeing-eye horses may be catching rides on Portland buses and trains in the future, if legal experts advise TriMet to allow them. Current TriMet rules only allow service animals if the owner has a permit. New federal rules allow dogs and in some cases, miniature horses, too.

A conservation group dedicated to protecting habitat for pheasants has acquired a 2,700-acre ranch in southeast Idaho that will one day be open to public hunting and recreation. Ryan Storm is the Pheasants Forever's regional rep.

STORM: It’s actually a piece of property that we’ve been working on in a joint venture between NRCS which is a part of USDA and also with the family and with local chapters in Idaho and the eastern side of the state we were able to bring together enough sustain able resources in order to purchase the property.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Many times we humans like to put a human face on our animals. We do it to our dogs, (those ridiculous little sweaters on creatures already wearing fur coats), to our cats,  (there are way too many videos on line of cats in costumes with headgear), and even to our hamsters or lizards. We can’t help it, its what we do. And we want our dogs and cats living together in harmony, forget that they’re natural enemies. Perhaps that’s one of the driving factors when it comes to the majority of animal rights activists, especially those who claim to know what’s better for farm animals. For instance, the HSUS claims that group housing is better when it comes to raising hogs. As pork producer Kevin Peterson says that line of argument is just “intellectually dishonest”.  As most pig farmers will tell anyone who hasn’t had experience raising pigs, when these animals are kept in group housing they can, and generally do , become quite hostile towards each other. Ever see the damage an angry 500 pound hog can do? Hence the reason for housing pigs individually, it’s better for the animal. Pigs just aren’t into group hugs and working together as a team. That’s a human thing.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.