Prop 2: the humane thing to do

[Guest guest]

Wayne Pacelle's op-ed on Prop 2 in the Los Angeles Times.

 

Prop 2: the humane thing to do

California's farm animals and consumers deserve Proposition 2's

protections.

By Wayne Pacelle

October 28, 2008

Two weeks ago, video from an undercover investigation at Norco Ranch,

owned by Missouri-based Moark, was released to the public showing

pitiful images of animals abused at a California factory farm. The

undercover investigator not only recorded images of four to six birds

crammed into small cages and unable to extend their wings, but also

dead birds in cages, birds with legs or other body parts caught in the

wire caging, and the animals living in absolute filth and squalor.

 

A California initiative on the November ballot -- Proposition 2, the

Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act -- would phase out the cramming

of veal calves, breeding pigs and egg-laying hens into small cages and

crates. Moark and Norco together are the largest funders of the

campaign against Proposition 2, and Norco is the largest egg factory

farm in the state, with 8 million birds crammed into tiny cages.

 

If you only listened to the arguments of the opponents of Proposition

2 or read their news releases, you'd think they were the greatest

caretakers of animals and protectors of food safety. Their self-image

is miles from the reality.

 

Earlier this year, there was another investigation that shocked

Californians and the nation. It showed the mistreatment of " downer "

cows at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. slaughter plant in

Chino. An investigator from the Humane Society of the United States

went undercover there and documented sick and crippled cows being

brutalized in order to get them into the " kill box. "

 

Government inspectors and plant management either missed the abuse or

allowed it to persist. Agribusiness apologists tried their best to

deny that this happened until confronted with graphic videotape evidence.

 

These two investigations show that we cannot allow the factory farming

industry to self-regulate, nor can we wait for government to step up

and protect animals from abuse or to guard us from food safety

threats. That's precisely why Proposition 2 is so important and timely.

 

Animals with wings and legs need to be allowed to use them, and they

should not be denied enough room to stand up, turn around and stretch

their limbs. That's the simple fix behind Proposition 2, and it's

phased in over a six-year period to allow farmers to transition to

more humane production practices.

 

Proposition 2 will not restore the placid imagery of " Old MacDonald's

Farm, " but veal calves will no longer be chained by the neck and

confined in tiny stalls until slaughter; pigs will not be imprisoned

in metal cages that are barely larger than their bodies; and eight

hens at a time will not be crammed into wire cages with each bird

having less floor space than a letter-sized sheet of paper.

 

The greatest nation in the world, with the most innovative farmers,

can do better than immobilize animals in severe confinement systems

for their entire lives. Family farmers know food quality is enhanced

by more humane farming methods, and they know there is a balance

between animal care and economics.

 

The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production issued a

report concluding that Proposition 2 includes " the types of modest

animal welfare public policy improvements that the commissioners

recommend implementing. " This independent panel, chaired by former

Kansas Gov. John Carlin and including among its members former U.S.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and leading veterinarians and

farmers, said, " Practices that restrict natural motion, such as sow

gestation crates, induce high levels of stress in the animals and

threaten their health, which in turn may threaten human health. "

 

Science has confirmed what common sense already tells us: Cramming

animals into filthy, unsafe cages leads to higher rates of diseases

such as salmonella, which can spread to people. It's on the basis of

human and animal health concerns that the California Veterinary

Medical Assn., the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of

America and the Union of Concerned Scientists, along with more than 40

newspapers, have endorsed Proposition 2.

 

These modest reforms of farm practices won't be costly to implement.

The egg industry's own California-based economist reports that

producing cage-free eggs costs less than one penny per egg more.

 

For consumers, it's such a small price to pay. For millions of farm

animals, though, a yes vote on Proposition 2 means so very much.

 

Wayne Pacelle is president

 

and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.

www.YesonProp2.com