Animal welfare advocates put two major initiatives on the
ballot this November and saw emphatic wins on both Tuesday night. In California,
they were fighting to set standards for the treatment of caged animals. In
Florida, they were working to ban greyhound racing. Both measures succeeded by
large margins.
California's Proposition 12 establishes minimum space
requirements for egg-laying chickens, calves raised for veal, and pregnant
pigs. It builds on a previous successful proposition for farmed animal
conditions from 2008, reports Vox.com.
To prevent industrial producers from relocating out of state
to somewhere with laxer animal welfare requirements, Proposition 12's
requirements apply to all animal products sold within the state. That means
they might be adopted by out-of-state farmers, too, if they want to sell to
California's nearly 40 million consumers.
Proposition 12 had the support of the Humane Society, the
ASPCA, the Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club, and Earth Justice. Opposed
were the Association of California Egg Farmers and the National Pork Producers
Council, which objected that voters shouldn't tell farmers how to raise their
livestock. Less predictably, PETA also opposed the proposition, arguing that it
might delay implementation of some requirements from the earlier Proposition 2.