Complaint Filed Against Livestock Care Commission for Violating Open Meetings Law

The Humane Society of the United States has filed a formal complaintagainst the Kentucky Livestock Commission.Under state law, meetings of state agencies, boards and commissions need to be open to the public. But the Humane Society says the Livestock Care Standards Commission has been meeting secretly to draft new rules for managing farm animals.Pam Rogers is the state director of the Humane Society. She says the standards the commission is working on include practices like tail amputation and confining veal calves in small crates, and these standards are:“Not scientifically sound practices nor are they practices the American Veterinary Medical Association agrees with either. So they’re basically just documenting what they currently do.”The complaint asks the commission to halt their work on the standards and revisit all the issues in open meetings. The commission was schedule to meet today, but the meeting was cancelled without explanation. A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture didn’t immediately return a request for comment.