California Proposition 2 Passes!

Current legislation allows a caveat that separates farm animals from every other animal in the country, and treats them like they aren't sentient beings. Now, California farms will have to put an end to battery cages, veal crates, and gestation crates by 2015.

Battery cages are where egg-laying hens are kept, and right now they are crammed with at least five other hens, allowing each hen less room than an 8" x 10" piece of paper. Those battery-caged hens lay more than 95% of the eggs we eat in the United States.

Right now, hens across California (and the rest of the United States) have their beaks burned off so they can't peck at other hens. Pecking is innate for chickens, but these chickens are never allowed to peck at the ground and become frustrated, so they peck at each other.

Right now, hens that die from their cruel lifestyle are left in the battery cages because there simply aren't enough workers to come in and clear them out. Those dead hens are trampled by the seven other hens in the battery cage, and become physically stuck to the cage. In fact, some of the live hens' fingers and toes have grown stuck to the cage, making it all the more impossible for them to move around.

Right now, hens aren't able to flap their wings ever, another innate habit that is as old as dawn. Those hens defecate and urinate where they stand, which leaks down to the crate below and the crate below, usually onto the heads of other hens. The ammonia fumes are so strong in hen houses that workers have to wear masks when they enter. No masks for the chickens though.

California Proposition 2 puts an end to those battery cages, and will be the first state in the United States to ban the cruel cages. California will follow all of Europe, which already has a ban on the crates. Farmers will have to allow almost 19 million hens room to turn around and spread their wings.

As for veal crates, newborn male cows are instantly separated from their mothers, which often leaves both animals loudly screaming, and brought to tiny two-foot wide cages where they are tied down. Right now, those baby cows are fed a diet devoid of protein (but full of antibiotics) so they don't grown any muscle, lest they become slightly less tasty for the wealthy American palate.

Right now, in those veal crates, the baby cows are chained to the wall and are unable to stand up, turn around, or lay down comfortably. They have to defecate and urinate right where they are, which means they are caked in their own liquids. Right now, they are killed within a few months of birth.

California Proposition 2 puts an end to the veal crates, and they will become the third state in the United States (behind Arizona and Colorado) to do away with them. All of Europe has already banned veal crates.

Gestation crates are where pregnant pigs are kept before and after giving birth. Pigs are known to be smarter and more aware than dogs and 3-year old children, and therefore this fate is horrendous for them.

Right now, pregnant pigs are chained on their sides in tiny two-foot wide metal cages where they are unable to turn around or be close to their nursing babies. Pigs have an enormous innate desire to burrow and create a nest for their piglets, and they are unable to nest. They lay on concrete floors, or sometimes grated floors where their feces can fall below. The feces below is not cleaned up, so their breathe in the ammonia gas from it for their entire lives. Whether concrete or grated, both are incredibly painful for the sow.

Pigs in the wild would never roll over on their piglets and they have an intense connection to their young, but gestation crates separate the two, making an emotional connection impossible.

Right now, after the sow nurses the piglets to a large enough size, she is re-impregnated. The entire process starts over again, until shw is spent and sent to slaughter.

California Proposition 2 makes it the fifth state to outlaw gestation crates (behind Florida, Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado), and will join Europe in the ban.

California Proposition 2 simply asked for animals to have very basic rights, but hopefully they are enough to increase awareness around the country. While no animal activists will say this is a perfect solution, Margaret Mead's quote comes to mind, "It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.”

Right now, we rejoice in the temporary solution of opening the eyes of the country to the cruelty we have been allowing and asking for it to end.

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