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Cattle graze on a Colorado ranch.
Cattle graze on a Colorado ranch.
Colorado farmers and ranchers have suffered another attack on their livelihood with the Polis administration’s latest appointment to a key agricultural post. Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg announced Rebecca Niemiec, an assistant professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University, will serve as the Bureau of Animal Protection’s new director.
Niemiec is charged with overseeing an agency, under the auspices of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, tasked with “the protection of companion animals and livestock (as) a matter of statewide concern.”
Niemiec was plucked for the role by Greenberg from a pool of three candidates put forward by Gov. Jared Polis. Niemiec’s hiring is a red flag for the state’s agricultural producers. She has advocated for the introduction of wolves to Colorado and actively promotes plant-based food choices — two résumé lines that are an affront to the state’s livestock industry. Ranchers cringe when they hear that Niemiec worked collaboratively with a nonprofit dubbed “Mercy for Animals,” a group that explicitly states its goal is to “construct a compassionate food system by reducing suffering and ending the exploitation of animals for food.” Their stated methods of accomplishing this include, as The Fence Post reported this month, undercover investigations, involvement in government policy and public affairs, corporate engagement, growing the market of plant-based foods and keeping farmed animals “in the headlines.”
Alas, Niemiec was the least objectionable choice to many ranchers of Polis’ three finalists. The other two included a current employee of the Los Angeles-based Animal Equity, working “for an international animal protection organization focused on farmed animals.” The other was a former zookeeper and current entertainment attorney who has filed a class-action lawsuit against dairy producers.
Polis put forth the three candidates after Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Steve Silverman and a selection panel recommended four other applicants, including a Colorado county animal-control supervisor with bureau experience, a specialist in animal cruelty investigations and prosecutions with a metro district attorney’s office, a state director of the Humane Society of the United States and a senior executive of Mercy for Animals.
The contrast between the panel’s recommendations and Polis’ candidates raises questions about the level of cohesion in the Polis administration. Meanwhile, an open-records request by The Fence Post showed Polis had a “strong influence” in the final selection of Niemiec.
Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, went as far to say he’s more concerned with Niemiec’s appointment than Polis’ pick of Ellen Kessler to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine, an animal rights and vegan activist who resigned last month after calling ranchers “lazy” and “nasty.”
“The message being sent by the governor is agriculture (is) a mortal enemy of the Department of Agriculture and the state,” Fankhauser told The Fence Post. “That message is being heard loud and clear. We are under attack.”
The governor and his state officials need to do a better job bringing our state’s important agriculture groups to the table for crucial decision-making. Kenny Rogers, president-elect of the Colorado Livestock Association, didn’t mince words, charging that the governor’s office has “ignored” the input of our long-standing agriculture groups and adding he “never imagined it would be this bad” and that the state is “fully aware of dire consequences for the state’s agriculture producers.”
That needs to change. Our state’s agricultural industry deserves better. And it merits all of Colorado’s respect — especially the governor’s. Agriculture not only is a cornerstone of our state’s economy; it also is Colorado’s staff of life.
Ryan McKibben, Chairman
Christian Anschutz, Vice Chairman
Chris Reen, Publisher
Wayne Laugesen, Editorial Page Editor
Pula Davis, Newsroom Operations Director
