Voting YES! on Prop 2…
*Prevents cruelty to animals.
It’s simply wrong to confine veal calves, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens in tiny cages barely larger than their bodies. Calves are tethered by the neck and can barely move, pigs in severe confinement bite the metal bars of their crates, and hens get trapped and even impaled in their wire cages. We wouldn’t force our pets to live in filthy, cramped cages for their whole lives, and we shouldn’t force farm animals to endure such misery. All animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment.
*Veal crates.
In order to produce veal, most calves are taken from their mothers when they are just hours or days old and then tethered by their necks in crates too narrow for them to turn around or even lie down comfortably. Virtually
immobilized and prevented from engaging in natural behavior, they suffer immensely.
*Gestation crates.
During nearly their entire four-month pregnancies, millions of female pigs used for breeding are confined in barren gestation crates – individual, metal stalls only two-feet wide. The crates are so small that the animals cannot even turn around. Barely able to move, these highly intelligent and social animals suffer terribly and develop crippling joint disorders and lameness.
*Battery cages.
Nationwide, hundreds of millions of egg‐laying hens are confined in tiny, barren, battery cages so small that the birds can’t spread their wings, nest, dust-bathe, perch, or even walk more than a few painful steps. Each caged hen has less space than a sheet of letter‐sized paper on which to live for more than a year before she is killed.
*Improves our health and food safety.
We all witnessed the cruel treatment of sick and crippled cows exposed by a Southern California slaughter plant investigation this year, prompting authorities to pull meat off school menus and initiate a nationwide recall. Factory farms put our health at risk—cramming tens of thousands of animals into tiny cages, fostering the spread of diseases that may affect people. YES! on Prop 2 is better for animals—and for us.
*Supports family farmers.
California family farmers support YES! on Prop 2 because they know that better farming practices enhance food quality and safety. Increasingly, they’re supplying major retailers like Safeway and Burger King. Factory farms cut corners and drive family farmers out of business when they put profits ahead of animal welfare and our health.
*Protects air and water and safeguards the environment.
The American Public Health Association has called for a moratorium on new factory farms because of the devastating effects these operations can have on surrounding communities, spreading untreated waste on the ground and contaminating our waterways, lakes, groundwater, soil, and air. Prop 2 helps stop some of the worst abuses and protects our precious natural resources. That’s why California Clean Water Action and Sierra Club-California support YES! on Prop 2.
*Is a reasonable and common-sense reform.
Prop 2 provides ample time—until 2015—for factory farms using these severe confinement methods to shift to more humane practices. Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Oregon have passed similar laws. The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, hundreds of California veterinarians, including the California Veterinary Medical Association; California family farmers; the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the United Farm Workers, and the Cesar Chavez Foundation; Republican and Democratic elected officials; California religious leaders; and many others.
*Is a modest and common-sense reform.
Because the intensive confinement of calves, pigs, and egg-laying hens in crates and cages causes painful and severe welfare problems, the entire European Union has already banned veal crates and is phasing out gestation crates and barren battery cages. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production – an independent panel chaired by former Kansas Governor John Carlin and including former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, among its prestigious Commissioners – said that Prop 2 includes “the types of modest animal welfare public policy improvements that the Commissioners recommend implementing.”
*Is supported by leading animal welfare advocates.
Prop 2 is endorsed by more than 100 animal protection charities, including many California humane societies and SPCAs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and beyond; and the State Humane Association of California. Leaders like The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, Best Friends Animal Society, and the California Veterinary Medical Association recommend voting YES! on Prop 2.
