Gov. Christie Attends Atlantic City Summit Part II

Gov. Chris Christie file photo.

(Aris Economopoulos/NJ Advance Media)

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie told Iowa pork producers he intends to veto a controversial pig crate bill currently sitting on his desk.

The Republican governor, who traditionally backs off from declaring how he’ll act on pending legislation when asked by reporters, made his intentions clear on a pig gestation crate bill when asked last month about it during a visit to Northwest Iowa, according to a pork producer.

“He indicated to us that he was going to veto the bill,” said Bill Tentinger, an Iowa pork producer and former president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

When Christie — a potential Republican presidential candidate — vetoed a similar bill in 2013, proponents of the measure accused him of of putting presidential politics ahead of the will of the New Jersey people, who overwhelming support banning the practice. Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses, has a large number of pig farms and banning the practice is unpopular there.

Tentinger was one of several Iowa Republicans who met Christie when the governor headlined a fundraiser last month for U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) during the lawmaker’s annual pheasant hunt.

Christie has until early December to act on a bill that seeks to ban gestation crates for pigs.

“I indicated to him that I could not understand how someone who has never stepped foot on a pig farm … could ever understand (the use of gestation crates) or why they should even have any opinion on the use of them,” Tentinger said by phone. “And he said to me, ‘I agree with you.’”

The conversation took place at the Hole N' the Wall Lodge in Akron Iowa, about a thirty-minute drive from Tentinger's pig farm, he said.

The bill would direct the state Department of Agriculture to prohibit “the confinement, in an enclosure, of any sow during gestation in a manner that prevents the sow from turning around freely, lying down, standing up, or fully extending the limbs of the animal.”

On a practical level, the bill won’t have much — if any — effect on New Jersey. There are few pig farmers in New Jersey, and animal rights activists say none of them use gestational crates, which they say are cruel because they don’t allow pregnant pigs to even turn around.

New Jersey farms were home to just 8,000 pigs in 2011, according to the federal Department of Agriculture. By contrast, Iowa that same year had 20 million pigs.

But activists pushing for the bill sharply criticized the governor discussing the it in Iowa while keeping mum in New Jersey, where they hoped to discuss it with him.



"It's a little shocking that Gov. Christie is going to Iowa and discussing his plans and intentions to folks outside of his state while completely refusing to discuss it with reporters and his own constituency in New Jersey," said Matt Dominguez, public policy manager with the Humane Society of the United States.



"He's putting the interests of out-of-staters before the people who elected him to office," Dominguez said.



He said it's wrong for the governor to keep "his own constituents in the dark," explaining how twin sisters who delivered 125,000 petitions to Christie's office on Thursday weren't told he would veto the bill.



The bill's sponsor said he wasn't told either.



"I had not heard it before and quite frankly if the governor thought it was more important to tell an Iowa pork farmer what he was going to do with my legislation that passed both houses overwhelmingly, that's just a total insult," said Ray Lesniak (D-Union).



Christie's office said the bill is "still within the statutory time frame for consideration before the Governor acts on it again," but declined to provide further comment.

The measure has prompted several famous New Jerseyans — including Martha Stewart, Danny DeVito and Bill Maher — to write letters calling on Christie to sign it.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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