Ever since the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a commonsense farm animal protection law—California's Proposition 12—lobbyists representing only a segment of the pork industry have pushed for a so-called “fix”—a “fix” that is not at all necessary. First, they tried it though legislation like the Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act (H.R. 4417 / S. 2019) and now their allies in Congress are trying to use the Farm Bill to implement this “fix.”
The attempted "fix" and the bill’s underlying premise flies in the face of the established principles of federalism on which our nation was founded. It would deny Americans the power to enact change on the state and local level regarding goods sold within their borders, and it could wipe out duly enacted animal cruelty and public health measures across the country. A report published by Harvard Law School highlights many of the potential adverse impacts of the EATS Act.
Now, proponents are trying to "fix" Prop 12 through the Farm Bill, a large-scale legislative package that directs federal agricultural policy and programs every five years. As Farm Bill discussions play out, we’re fully mobilized around preventing this reckless power grab, and defending the crucial farm animal welfare protections we’ve helped to enact in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington, as well as hundreds of other laws across the country that the EATS Act puts at risk. These laws ban the cruelest methods of confinement, including gestation crates—metal bar cages that prevent mother pigs from turning around—and battery cages used in the egg industry, which prohibit hens from fully spreading their wings.
By usurping state and local lawmaking authority, the Prop 12 "fix" and the EATS Act target state laws concerning the extreme confinement of egg-laying hens, veal calves, and breeding pigs, while threatening other animal welfare laws dealing with cruel puppy mills, the slaughter of horses, and wildlife trafficking. It also jeopardizes hundreds of state and local agricultural production laws, including those covering food safety, disease prevention, environmental protection and labor standards.
American legislatures have been passing laws to protect animals for more than two centuries, and Americans have been demonstrating their concern for animals for a lot longer. In our state and local governments, as in our individual capacities, we are entitled to pursue our goals of addressing animal cruelty, suffering, and neglect.
In our great nation, we should see compassionate lawmaking to protect animals happen more easily, and more often. But there are always well-funded special interests—threatened by the most minimal safeguards for animals, even when they benefit human health and safety—ready to stand in the way. It’s especially true for some in the pork industry, who have opposed us time and again on the most basic of reform initiatives.
We’re well accustomed to squaring off against billion-dollar industries in battles over animal welfare. Please join us and give it all you’ve got. The stakes could not be higher, and to win, we need you.
