6/5 Meeting to BAN GESTATION CRATES

[Guest guest]

FW: [Fwd: IMPORTANT MEETING FOR FARM ANIMALS -- PLEASE FORWARD]Is anyone

interested in having dinner beforehand and going over to the meeting

together? Suggestions for restaurant welcome (please, not Greens though!)

 

Cheers,

Tammy

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PLEASE JOIN GENE BAUSTON OF

FARM SANCTUARY AND KATHERINE BRAGDON OF THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED

STATES TO LEARN ABOUT THE POTENTIAL STATEWIDE BALLOT INITIATIVE TO BAN

GESTATION CRATES IN CALIFORNIA

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Following on the heels of the successful Florida farm animal initiative,

many organizations are considering launching a statewide ballot initiative

in California to ban gestation crates. Our decision to go forward will

depend on opinion polls to determine whether we have the public support

needed to win in November 2004. If this initiative is indeed launched,

thousands of volunteers will be needed to gather the 600,000 signatures

required to place this initiative on the November 2004 ballot (see article

below for more details).

 

 

7:00PM, THURSDAY, JUNE 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Mason Center, Building C, Room C230

Marina District, San Francisco

 

 

DIRECTIONS: The entrance to the Fort Mason Center is at the intersection of

Marina Boulevard and Buchanan Street, in the Marina district. There is no

street address. For more further information including directions and phone

numbers, please go to www.fortmason.org/directions.

 

 

 

Gene and Katherine will be discussing the issue and will share with

volunteers the signature gathering strategy

that was successfully used to place animals initiatives on the ballots of a

dozen states including Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

For more information, please contact Sarah White with Farm Sanctuary at

607-583-2225 ext. 229 or activist.

 

 

 

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POSSIBLE CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURE TO BAN ABUSIVE FACTORY FARMING PRACTICE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A statewide ballot initiative may be launched in California to outlaw the

cruel confinement of pigs on industrialized factory farms. If so,

volunteers must gather 600,000 signatures to place this measure on the 2004

November ballot to ban the intensive and unnecessary confinement of

breeding pigs.

 

 

 

Measured just in sheer numbers, the abuse of animals on " factory farms "

dwarfs the exploitation of animals used in other animal industries. Every

year, billions of animals are reared and confined on factory farms and then

sent to slaughterhouses. Small family farms have been supplanted by

corporate animal factories, which treat animals as nothing more than

unfeeling commodities. Thousands of animals are crowded on factory farms,

causing misery for the animals while putrefying the air, contaminating

groundwater, and threatening human health.

 

It is well known that the veal crate is among the most cruel and deplorable

animal husbandry technique: young veal calves are kept in tiny stalls for

their short 16-week lives confined so intensely that they cannot even move.

Perhaps less known, but equally cruel and inhumane, is the way female

breeding pigs are treated on factory farms.

 

Breeding sows are confined in barren metal cages ­ measuring just two feet

wide ­ for almost their entire lives. The enclosures are called " gestation

crates " . Pigs are confined in these crates during pregnancy. They cannot

exercise or even turn around and are prevented from engaging in natural

behaviors or from satisfying basic psychological needs. After they produce

a litter of piglets, the mother pig is impregnated again and returned to

the miserable life of a gestation crate. This cycle is repeated for up to

10 pregnancies.

 

Pigs in gestation crates suffer from an array of physical ailments such as

joint disorders and lameness, and psychological maladies including chronic

stress and depression. The pigs have sores on their bodies from constantly

rubbing against the bars of their enclosures. Confined pigs routinely

exhibit neurotic coping behaviors, which include repetitive bar biting and

head waving.

 

 

 

Gestation crates are so cruel that they have been outlawed in other

countries, but, tragically, they remain common in the United States,

including California. The practice of keeping a female pig in a constant

state of pregnancy and confined in a tiny crate for her entire life should

be illegal.

 

 

Florida successfully banned gestation crates through the initiative process

in 2002. Concerned Californians may have this same opportunity to outlaw

this acute factory farm abuse and to keep corporate pig factories out of

California by gathering signatures to place a measure to limit the

confinement of pigs on the ballot for the 2004 election. If launched and

successful, this initiative would be the second ballot initiative ever to

ban a particular factory farming technique. Thousands of volunteer

petitioners may be needed to collect the 600,000 signatures necessary to

place this initiative on the November 2004 California ballot.