Whether state Issue 2 passes or is defeated at the polls, expect the Humane Society of the United States to return to Ohio in 2010 or 2011 to press its case for more-humane treatment of farm animals and poultry.

"We'll see what happens," Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society's president and chief executive officer, said in a Dispatch editorial board meeting yesterday. "We're not rushing to the ballot issue. We're looking at it."

If the issue passes, the Humane Society would have no other choice but to come back with another constitutional amendment, Pacelle said. If it fails, the society could push its reform agenda to state lawmakers or through another ballot issue, which would not have to be a constitutional amendment.

Pacelle clashed yesterday with John C. Fisher, executive vice president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, during a final debate at a meeting of the Columbus Rotary at the Hyatt Regency before an audience of about 200.

If passed, Issue 2 would establish an appointed, 13-member Livestock Care Standards Board with virtually unlimited authority to set standards for everything from care to slaughter of livestock and poultry.

Fisher told the Rotarians that farmers care about animals because the creatures provide their livelihood, but that the public should "put humans first. We're all about the humane treatment of animals, just not treating them as humans."

Pacelle said Ohio has the "weakest laws in the nation regarding animal welfare," in large part because the Farm Bureau has consistently used its financial and political clout to bat down reforms.

"These animals give their lives to satisfy us," Pacelle said. "But on today's factory farms, they are treated like living commodities."

The Farm Bureau, with 234,000 Ohio members, approached state lawmakers about the constitutional amendment after the Humane Society, with 11 million national members, said this year that it intends to bring a reform campaign to Ohio.

Pacelle said that by placing the issue in the constitution, agribusiness interests backing Issue 2 hope to "choke off" reform efforts.

"We wanted to elevate the issue," Fisher responded. "I'm proud to be an Ohioan. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of the system we have. I'm not going to apologize for it."

Fisher and other critics charge that the Humane Society's ultimate goal is to push the American public to become vegans (no meat, poultry, fish or animal products of any kind).

Pacelle did not directly respond to the charge during the debate, but he said later that although he is vegetarian, many of the society's board of directors and employees aren't. "We're not a vegetarian organization," he said.

ajohnson@dispatch.com