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UNETHICAL PRACTICES OBSERVED AT YOUTH LIVESTOCK EXHIBITIONS BY
OHIO SECONDARY AGRICULTURAL EDUCATORS
James J. Connors, Assistant Professor
Janice E. Dever, Extension Agent
Abstract
During the past decade, there have been numerous cases of youth who have been found to have engaged in unethical practices at livestock exhibitions in Ohio. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of unethical practices that were observed by secondary agriculture teachers at youth livestock exhibitions. The objectives for the study were to identify the unethical practices observed at youth livestock exhibitions, to rate the unethical practices according to the frequency of their occurrence, and to compare differences in the observed unethical practices by gender, agricultural education district and years of experience with youth livestock exhibitions. Results found that issues related to adult involvement were the most frequently observed unethical practices at youth livestock exhibitions. Introduction
Clenbuterol is a B-agonist drug that affects lung and heart function and is banned for (2002), the term ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what is good and bad present in an animal’s system, the weight and with moral duty and obligation; a set of gain becomes muscle instead of fat, hence, moral principles or values. Over the past decade, youth livestock exhibitions around increase in the number of unethical practices test revealed that the grand champion and being used by youth and adults alike, in order to improve their chances of receiving treated with thorazine, an oral tranquilizer recognition for their animals and winning (Baird & Woods, 1995). Goodwin (2001) reported that an animal science graduate was caught on videotape beating a lamb to During the 1994 exhibition season, seven of the top 10 steers, and the grand champion lamb at the Ohio State Fair tested positive Texas was also caught putting a water hose for clenbuterol and/or vegetable oil. In 1995, down the throat of his hog to fill the animal vegetable oil was also discovered in the reserve grand champion steer of the Clark County Fair during butchering. The purpose The situation has not improved in recent of vegetable oil injected under the skin is to Fairs, animals were disqualified for having testicular tissue in their system, having detectable until the animal is butchered. illegal growth enhancers in their urine, and Journal of Agricultural Education
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having hair glued and painted on to simulate as the only way to keep up with everyone a straighter top line (Niquette, 2003; Wilson, else. Also, successful cheating by college Theoretical Framework
Unfortunately the same characteristics and observed at youth livestock exhibitions by perform unethical behavior is a problem that has affected academic institutions, youth Nestor (2000) studied unethical practices sports competitions, and youth livestock in livestock exhibitions observed by West exhibitions. The motivations for people to Virginia extension agents and high school cheat on tests or competitive events are agriculture teachers. Nestor’s research complex and varied. In his comprehensive revealed 58 practices that were considered to analysis of cheating in academic institutions, be unethical by the population of the study. The researcher reported that the top three practices identified by the study did not researcher reported that, “Students with lower grades are more likely both to report actions. They included: 1) adults and youth cheating on tests and to actually engage in questioning the integrity of the livestock the behavior, whereas students with higher judge because he/she chose one breed over achievement are less likely to do either” (p. another, etc.; 2) parents or teachers getting animals ready to show; and 3) talking about reaches its peak among high school students the other children and judges (Nestor, 2000, with 84.5% having reported cheating while The next six practices that the population students are usually the same age as most considered to be unethical included three youth livestock exhibitors at local fairs and that related to the mistreatment of animals livestock shows. Baird (1980)(as cited in and three that related to youth or adult participation in extracurricular activities included: the alteration of the hair, hooves or skin by the use of paint, oils, powder, hair dye coloring, etc., having animals drink a (1987)(as cited in Cizek, 1999) researched great deal of water to increase weight or the relationship between family structure withholding feed and water from animals to and cheating by elementary school students lower weight prior to weigh-in. The youth students from biologically intact families youth not knowing a lot about the animal were less susceptible to peer pressure to they were showing, paying extreme prices for feeder pigs or calves to improve the The prevalence of cheating and unethical professionals groom animals prior to show. agricultural education professionals and mixture of concerns with youth livestock exhibitions. Nestor concluded that there academic dishonesty outlined eight reasons were unethical practices in West Virginia; however, the practices with a high rate of academic integrity. The authors identified occurrence were the ones concerning adults student morale and students’ future behavior as two of the eight reasons. The authors theorized that if students see other students cheat, and succeed, they will abandon their ethical behavior and come to view cheating Journal of Agricultural Education
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In research conducted at the San Antonio Livestock Exhibition by Keith (1996), the clenbuterol to his ten year old daughter’s steer resulting in her being banned from the The participants report that the negative show for life and forfeiting the money is effect of prestige is an increase in the excessive adult involvement” (p. 1). He concluded that parents and youth need to revealed that the notoriety and prestige work together, parents should provide more help to younger exhibitors and they must One parent stated, “Its like drugs once you concerning the unethical fitting and showing experience it you want more, at whatever practices in junior livestock shows. The cost, money, cheating, forgetting about the population for the study consisted of the Defining unethical practices or excessive adult involvement is a difficult task. The State Fair of Texas attempted to define this Assistance rule (Cosner, 1995) which reads: illegal drugs in preparing market animals for show ring competition, approximately 47% had either registered crossbred animals or aware of falsification of data other than parentage on registration certificates (p. 99). assistance in the care, grooming, fitting H animal projects as perceived by selected participants, parents, and extension agents in from any adult with the exception of the Mississippi was completed by Baker (1991). supervising CEA [Cooperative According to Baker (1991), 66.6% of the Extension Agent] or AST [Agricultural stated that they had learned “a lot” about extension agents stated they had learned “quite a bit” while 31.1% stated that they had learned “some” about treating animals or show any youth project animal(s). properly (Baker, 1991). The findings of the (p. 1) study show that 59.9% of the 4-H members, extension agents stated that they had learned regulations of many livestock exhibitions “a lot” about the importance of rules (Baker, Livestock Show’s (2004) rule on ownership members rated as “not at all” a problem (Baker, 1991). However, the parents, 27.3%, Exhibitors must own their animals at the emphasis on winning “a little” of the study’s population was 196 FFA members questionnaire utilized a case-study format Journal of Agricultural Education
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consisting of 20 case-study questions given to a treatment group and a control group. Goodwin’s video, The Line in the Sand as overall mean of 3.84 on a 5-point Likert- secondary agricultural educators in the state. type scale, while the control group had an Agricultural teachers were selected because they have a close working relationship with females had an overall mean of 3.76 while both FFA and 4-H youth livestock exhibitors males had an overall mean of 3.55, resulting and regularly participate in youth livestock in a significant difference between males and females. Rus concluded that, “From the season. The secondary agricultural educators results, it should be understood that the were identified through the 2002-2003 Ohio education provided by agriculture instructors positive impact” (p. 20). These results, published in October 2002. The directory was reviewed by teacher educators and state agricultural education supervisors to delete checked for validity or tested for reliability. any secondary agricultural educators that Rus (1997, p. 13) stated, “the validity of this instrument was not determined and should furthermore, reliability was not tested.” The limited number of studies related to agricultural educators who had at least two years of teaching experience, taught in either the agriscience or production agriculture needed to determine if the situation has The respondents were also asked to limit improved with the increased awareness on their reflections to the five year period the part of youth and adults involved with was selected because it was three years after Purpose and Objectives
public and after educational programs were initiated to address the unethical problems in controlled by conducting a census of all during youth livestock exhibitions in Ohio. secondary agriculture teachers who met the The following were the objectives of the qualifications. The resulting population of secondary agriculture teachers consisted of included 45 practices addressing unethical practices that may have been observed by the secondary agricultural educators in the state. The instrument employed a five point Likert-type scale (1 = no opportunity to observed, 4 = occasionally observed, 5 = regularly observed) to collect data. The Journal of Agricultural Education
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respondents were also asked four additional questions regarding educational programs experience. The early group had a mean age and the problem of unethical behavior as a of 38.00, while the late group had a mean age of 44.35. The means for the years of experience was 15.60 years for the early educators with experience in youth livestock group and 21.43 for the late group. This exhibitions, examined the questionnaire for difference may have been due to the method content and face validity. Twenty secondary traditional mailing. Younger teachers, with professionals from the state of West Virginia less years of experience tended to respond completed the pilot test for reliability. earlier to the web-based instrument, while Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of internal consistency reliability for the 45 Likert-type respond later to the traditional mailing. educators had no differences in how they responded to the questions. Therefore, the results can be generalized to the target mailings. A list of the email addresses for the agricultural teachers in the state was Department of Education, 2002). Nineteen teachers responded to the questionnaire for a secondary agricultural educators did not have a valid email address or Internet access and, therefore, received the questionnaire via traditional mailing. An email cover letter was sent to 227 agriculture teachers with Respondents had a mean age of 40.7 years email addresses in January 2003. A link to the questionnaire located at the Zoomerang letter. Two- weeks after the first email observed the practice of “paying extreme cover letter the non-respondents received a prices, above market value, for high quality second email cover letter with a link to the replacement questionnaire via traditional secondary agricultural educators who had “parents or teachers preparing animals for show rather than youth.” “Pulling a lamb’s head in the air to the point that its feet leave the ground (for bracing purposes),” was rated third with 42.8% (71) of secondary “Research has shown that late respondents agricultural educators observing this practice are often similar to non-respondents” (Miller frequently observed practice, “the grooming respondents were the secondary agricultural of show animals by professionals rather than educators who responded to the web-based youth” was observed regularly by 32.7% of survey and the first traditional hard copy responded to the questionnaire. “Adults and responded to the second traditional hard livestock judge because he/she chose one breed over another, etc.” was the fifth practice regularly observed by the secondary practices on the questionnaire. However, agricultural educators (29.5%, n=49). In the differences were found between the early top five regularly observed practices, one Journal of Agricultural Education
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dealt with the treatment of an animal while Final reliability coefficients for the six the other four involved humans and their results for the altering subgroup should be Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of internal consistency reliability. The means of the six ownership/identification, illegal drugs, physical alteration including physical abuse, and professional fitters. Following this five subgroups. As Table 1 shows, the top the questionnaire were categorized into six ethics are related to people and their actions animals, animal health, animal management, ethics and fraudulent practices. The six livestock practices. The last two subgroups related to more overt practices of altering subgroup was deleted due to low reliability. Table 1 Ratings of unethical practices by subgroups Note: 1 = no opportunity to observe, 2 = never observed, 3 = rarely observed, 4 = occasionally observed, 5 = regularly observed four of the six subgroups, animal health, animal management, adult involvement, and Journal of Agricultural Education
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Table 2 Rating of unethical practices subgroups by male and female respondents Note: 1 = no opportunity to observe, 2 = never observed, 3 = rarely observed, 4 = occasionally observed, 5 = regularly observed years, 21-30 years, and 31 years or more. experience had the lowest means scores in animals subgroups. District five secondary five of the six subgroups: adult involvement, agricultural educators had the lowest mean ethics, animal management, animal health, scores in the adult involvement, ethics, and fraudulent practices. Respondents with 10 years or less had the highest mean scores fraudulent practices subgroups. The third demographic question concerned the years of experience of the respondents. The years practices. Table 3 contains the data for years were categorized into 10 years or less, 11-20 Journal of Agricultural Education
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Table 3 Rating of unethical practices groups by years of teaching experience Note: 1 = no opportunity to observe, 2 = never observed, 3 = rarely observed, 4 = occasionally observed, 5 = regularly observed Conclusions and Recommendations
(98.8%) stated the youth they worked with involvement and not unethical treatment of had participated in an educational program animals. These findings support those of (e.g. Quality Assurance, guest speakers, Nestor (2000). The following five practices video tapes). Ninety-seven percent of the were ranked in the top ten in both this study reported that they had participated, while five respondents had not participated in any 1. “Paying extreme prices, above market 2. “Parents or teachers preparing animals programs had no effect on the incidences of educators choose “getting better,” while 5. “Withholding feed from an animal to unethical behavior problem was “staying the Journal of Agricultural Education
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Based on the results of this study, it can related to animal health, management, and be concluded that adults and youth involved altering, while females are more sensitive to ethical issues and fraudulent practices. willing to pay extremely high prices when Agriculture teachers from different areas purchasing animals to raise for showing, of the state observed unethical practices have professionals or experienced adults practices at youth livestock exhibitions may question the integrity of the judge if their be in direct proportion to the amount of livestock produced and exhibited in an area. that the adult involvement practices were observed more frequently than practices in livestock shows may result in individuals resorting to unethical practices in order to subgroups, adult involvement and ethics are related to people and their actions/behaviors. Years of experience with youth livestock Within the top ten practices, four practices exhibitions affected how often agriculture were considered adult involvement, and two teachers observed unethical practices. The practices each related to ethics, animal experience level and knowledge of unethical While participants in youth livestock shows are willing to go to extreme measures to between the groups. Because the issue of win, it seems that they are less willing to alter animals or resort to deceptive practice. Therefore, the most prevalent problem in teachers who have been teaching for less exhibitions is with adult involvement from the purchase of the animal to the preparation of the animal for the show ring. This result positive impact on the problem of unethical has been a recognized problem for several behavior at youth livestock exhibitions. The years. Goodwin (1995) identified it as a agriculture teachers indicated that both problem when he stated, “Adults are where the problems with the [junior livestock] participated in, and benefited from, these program arise” (p. 1). This finding is also research conducted by Rus (1997) where he concluded, “…the education provided by cheated as youth were likely to cheat in their Extension is having a positive impact” (p. 20). The problem of unethical behavior at youth livestock exhibitions does seem to be influence youth exhibitors to do the same. getting better. Quality assurance programs, seemed to observe unethical practices at unethical practices and rules, and penalties for unethical practices were reasons for the unethical practices related to animal health, animal management, adult involvement, and indicated that questionable practices were between the years of 1998 and 2002. Adult results of Nestor’s study (2000) where involvement is the area of most concern that females rated such practices as talking about judges, illegal ownership issues and paying high prices for animals, higher than males. ethics discussions. The unethical practices that have given youth livestock exhibitions a and therefore aware, of unethical practices negative image in the past are the practices Journal of Agricultural Education
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that rarely occur. It was more common for youth livestock exhibition officials, and agriculture teachers to have observed the animals; parents, teachers, or professionals preparing the animal rather than youth; and educators should teach an ethics unit for livestock judges Unfortunately, these are agricultural students every year to ensure the questionable practices that many people unethical practices. In discussing the judge’s responsibility with identifying ethical abuses Perry (1995, p. 2) stated, “Although judges Educational programs should be required for parents, agricultural educators, extension agents, judges, and exhibition firmly enforce the ones that we can superintendents and not just for youth situation of anybody involved to enforce the livestock exhibitions (Perry, 1995) when he is currently required for youth exhibitors, I believe that education is one of the key professional who would conduct it in every county in the state to ensure correct and management and animal health topics were parent and leader or advisor involved in taught. All youth livestock exhibitions at all levels: county, regional, state, and national, need to have the same set of rules and strict other states and on the national level with secondary agricultural educators, extension agents, parents, livestock show officials, parents, agricultural educators, extension judges and youth exhibitors. A follow-up agents, and show fitters with youth livestock study should be completed in five years to with other efforts, are reducing the incidence avoided. One parent that should have been better educated about ethics was quoted as determine if the concerns about unethical saying, “I only wanted to give her an equal practices at youth livestock exhibitions vary playing ground” (Tyson, 1995, p. 2) after his daughter’s grand champion steer at the State References
positive for clenbuterol. Steinberg (1987) (as cited in Cizek, 1999) reported that students Baird, D., & Woods, J. (1995, August from biologically intact families were less 26). Steers eyed in probes. The Columbus susceptible to peer pressure to cheat. If youth exhibitors were required to attend /guardian they may learn more and be less exhibiting 4-H animal projects as perceived likely to participate in unethical behavior extension agents in Mississippi. Dissertation Abstracts International, 52(07), 2376A. Journal of Agricultural Education
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Cizek, G. J. (1999). Cheating on tests: Extension, 21, September/October, 45- How to do it, detect it, and prevent it. & Dubes, R. (1992). Unethical fitting Ethics in exhibiting and showing livestock – facing reality. The Agriculture Education Agriculture and Natural Resources, 5, 99– Cosner, B. (1995). Restriction of assistance rule. Paper presented at the 1995 Nash, S. (1996). Ag teachers and county agents perspective. Paper presented at the Symposium. Retrieved April 12, 2004, from http://animalagriculture.org/Proceedings/pro agriculture.org/Proceedings/proceedingsintr Goodwin, J. L. (1995). The challenge of ethics and the jr. livestock show. Paper Nestor, J. (2000). Unethical practices in exhibition animals as observed by West Virginia extension agents and high school http://animalagriculture.org/Proceedings/pro agriculture teachers. Unpublished master’s livestock shows—past, present, and future. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Fight over champion hog to continue. The Premium book. Retrieved April 12, 2004, 2002-2003 state agriculture teacher PDF/2004livestockexhandbook/2004-fullpre perspective. Paper presented at the 1995 Keith, L. (1996). The phenomena of winning. Paper presented at the 1995 http://animalagriculture.org/Proceedings/pro Symposium. Retrieved April 12, 2004, from http://animalagriculture.org/Proceedings/pro Rus, D. (1997). Evaluation of ethics perceptions in FFA members. Unpublished master’s thesis, Colorado State University: Say it ain’t so, Bessie. The Other Paper, Fort Collins. p. 9. Stokka, J. (2003). Clenbuterol and its uses in livestock. Retrieved July 25, 2002, Merriam-Webster collegiate dictionary. from http://www.clenbuterol.com/livestock Miller, L. & Smith, K. (1983). Cheating, abuse rear their heads at livestock Handling nonresponse issues. Journal of Journal of Agricultural Education
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Whitley, B. & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2002). Academic Dishonesty: An educator’s guide. prize lamb to be disqualified. The Columbus JAMES J. CONNORS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human and Community Resource Development at The Ohio State University, 216 Agricultural Administration Building, Columbus, OH 43210-1067. E-mail: [email protected]. JANICE E. DEVER is an Extension Agent for WVU Pendleton County, 200 Confederate Road, P.O. Box 96, Franklin, WV 26807-0096. E-mail: [email protected]. Journal of Agricultural Education
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Source: http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/jae/pdf/vol46/46-01-20.pdf