Who Gives a Cluck About Farm Animals?

I have a little assignment for you…take out a regular 8-1/2” x 11” piece of copy paper (for those math-challenged folks out there, that’s 93 square inches). Now, fold the paper over one-third, which makes a total of 67 square inches. All finished? OK, now imagine this: that measly 67 square inches represents the total living space for an egg-laying hen who provides the breakfast that your family consumes every morning. Surprised? It gets worse.

Hens that are housed in large, institutionalized facilities known as factory farms live their entire lives—about 15 months—crammed into “battery cages” (a fancy term for wire metal enclosures), which are stacked in huge indoor warehouses. The six to eight birds in each cage are debeaked—a painful procedure—so they’re physically unable to establish a normal, social hierarchy (a pecking order, if you will), they can’t stand or spread their wings, their excrement drops onto the birds in the lower cages, and they never, ever see the light of day. This would be like you and seven strangers crowding into an elevator and standing there…for more than a year. Imagine the stress, the stench, the pure hell of this existence. Sadly, this is the life of an egg-laying hen. (Bear with me; I’ll lighten things up in a bit.)

Life isn’t any picnic for veal calves and breeding pigs either. Calves raised for veal are taken from their mothers shortly after birth and placed in tiny cages barely larger than their bodies. They’re tethered by the neck, unable to stretch their legs or turn around, and are purposely kept anemic so their flesh is milky white and tender when they’re slaughtered. Breeding pigs endure similar fates. We wouldn’t subject our pets to this type of treatment, but we force farm animals to endure this misery every day of their lives.  

OK, I think it’s time for us to take a deep breath right now and compose ourselves before I continue. Inhale … hold … exhale. Once more — inhale … hold … exhale. Alright, I feel a bit better; how about you? I promise not to paint any more piteous pictures of animal abuse for the remainder of this column. What I will do is encourage you, as a California voter and a compassionate consumer, to VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. According to literature provided by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation’s largest animal protection organization and a major supporter of the measure, Proposition 2 is “a modest measure that stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, ending the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, lie down or extended their limbs.”

Voting YES on Prop. 2 will not only prevent the exploitation of farm animals, but it will improve human health and food safety as well. (Remember the shockingly merciless videos shot earlier this year of “downer” cattle at a Southern California slaughterhouse, which prompted authorities to pull meat off school menus and initiate the nation’s largest-ever meat recall?) Stuffing tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of animals, onto huge factory farms harms human health by fostering the spread of disease like salmonella and other food-borne illnesses.

Voting YES on Prop. 2 also supports small family farmers, who put human health and animal welfare ahead of preposterous profits. And a YES vote on Prop. 2 will protect air and water quality by limiting the spread of untreated waste into our already contaminated waterways, lakes, groundwater, soil and air. For this reason, the Sierra Club and the Clean Water Action support YES on Proposition 2 (for a full list of organizations that support Prop. 2, visit www.YesOnProp2.org).

Assemblymember Pedro Nava (CA), Wayne Pacelle, and Karen Lee Stevens
at a YES on Prop 2! Press Conference in Santa Barbara, California

Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of The HSUS (who also happens to be a vegan and one heck of a nice guy), spoke on Monday at a noon-time meeting at UCLA’s Animal Law Society where he said, “If you could ask the animals, I guarantee they would tell you they don’t want to live in these squalid conditions. What we are doing to them is unacceptable; it’s cruel, it’s wrong, and we can do better.”

On November 4, please join me in voting YES on Proposition 2. And that piece of paper I asked you to fold earlier? Wrap a check in it and send it to Yes on Prop. 2—Californians for Humane Farms, PO Box 418 202, Sacrament o, CA 95841. The health of the animals, the people and the environment depend on your vote and your financial support.

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Karen encourages readers to visit the YES! On Prop. 2 Web site and view the “Uncaged” animated video (she guarantees that even your kids will enjoy watching this toe-tapping tape), then email your thoughts to her at karenleestevens@cox.net.

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By Karen Lee Stevens,
Founder & President, ALL FOR ANIMALS, Inc.
Copyright © 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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