Recently, Governor Josh Shapiro made headlines by proposing to transfer 25 million fewer taxpayer dollars than have been transferred in recent years to private businesses that exploit and sell chickens and other domestic birds for meat and eggs.
 
This is a good start, but why was the state government taking money from Pennsylvanians in order to support private businesses in the first place?
 
So far, Pennsylvanians have been forced to provide $75 million in grants to business owners who claim to be suffering losses due to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza crisis. However, these businesses continue to keep chickens and other domestic birds in cramped, inhumane conditions that promote the spread of disease. In fact, there is no requirement that grant recipients do otherwise.

Please tell Governor Shapiro to end these programs altogether.

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Dear Governor Shapiro:

We applaud your decision not to add another $25 million of taxpayer money to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Recovery Reimbursement Grant program and the HPAI Biosecurity Grant program.

As Pennsylvania taxpayers, however, we are asking you to go further and eliminate these programs altogether. It is not our responsibility as taxpayers to compensate anyone for business losses. The decision to exploit animals for profit carries inherent risk. This risk is made greater when living conditions and sanitation are sacrificed in order to maximize production and minimize expense. Whatever level of risk business owners choose to take, they do so at their own peril. The consequences should be their own to bear, and Pennsylvania taxpayers should not be asked to share this burden through the HPAI Recovery Reimbursement Grant or any similar program.

In regard to the HPAI Biosecurity Grant program, our concern is that it does not address overcrowding, which is one of the main reasons the HPAI crisis exists at all. Just as disease spreads among humans in overcrowded housing and healthcare facilities, so it does among chickens and other domestic birds when they are packed into barns and cages, often without sufficient room even to spread a wing. As taxpayers, we have no desire to pay for after-the-fact, corrective measures for an industry that has shown no desire to address root causes.

In transferring our money to those who cruelly and irresponsibly exploit animals for profit, the HPAI Recovery Reimbursement Grant and HPAI Biosecurity Grant programs force us to do what many of us would never do voluntarily. Further, one need have no personal opposition to animal exploitation to recognize that it is not the responsibility of taxpayers to support other people's privately-owned businesses. It is, therefore, in the interest of all Pennsylvania taxpayers that the HPAI Recovery Reimbursement Grant and HPAI Biosecurity Grant programs be ended immediately.