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Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act has been designated as PROP 2 on the November California state ballot!
July 9, 2008

The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act has just been designated as "Proposition 2" on the November 2008, California ballot! Prop 2 is a groundbreaking effort to ban some of the most egregiously cruel confinement systems used by large-scale agribusinees - veal crates for baby calves, gestation crates for mother pigs and battery cages for laying hens. Please join our efforts to pass Prop 2!

Hundreds of dedicated volunteers worked tirelessly between October 2007 and February 2008 throughout California to collect signatures to qualify the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act for placement on the November 2008 ballot. Thanks to their efforts the citizens of California have an unprecedented opportunity to vote on this animal cruelty question that will affect the lives of almost 20 million animals.

Now, with this historic campaign in full swing, we must maximize our efforts across the country to spread the word to Californians to Vote Yes on Prop 2! To do this, we invite you to take part in our effort to have 100 parties 100 days away from the election! Unlike signature gathering, which only California voters could participate in, anyone from around the world can take part in the 100 parties for farm animals. Find out how you can help, below.

If voters vote yes on November 4th 2008 California will no longer enable the use of:

• Veal crates - narrow wooden enclosures, just 2 feet wide, which prevent calves from turning around, lying down easily and even walking for the extent of their short lives.
• Gestation crates - 2-by-7 feet metal enclosures that confine 400-pound breeding sows (pigs used to supply the pork industry with piglets) for most of their four to five year lives. Prevented from taking more than a step forward or backward, and unable to turn around, sows will live their lives in these crates and are freed only briefly to be moved to similarly restrictive farrowing crates to give birth.
• Battery cages - small wire cages in which several hens are packed together so tightly that they are unable to even stretch their wings. Never touching the ground, the lifetime living space allotted to each hen is less a sheet of copy paper. Battery cages are used to confine 95 percent of all laying hens in the U.S. and allow giant egg farms to pack hundreds of thousands of hens into a single shed.

All these confinement systems are so cruel that they are already banned throughout much of Europe. In the U.S., a growing number of restaurants, supermarkets and even producers have pledged to stop using them, based on their inherent cruelty.

In the past few years alone, we have succeeded in banning gestation crates by ballot initiative in Florida, and a similar ballot initiative in Arizona banned gestation and veal crates. In 2007 Oregon became the first state in the nation to ban gestation crates by a legislative vote.

You Can Help:

Please be part of history and help us reduce the suffering of millions of animals in California! As we move into the next phase of this campaign, your help is greatly needed to spread the word. Here are a few ways that you can help:

1. Host a party on July 27! One hundred days out from Election Day, help rally friends, family, neighbors and co-workers behind the cause of compassion by hosting one of 100 house parties across the country. Make a difference and have fun doing it! Learn more here. Then email us to let us know you are in!
2. Attend Events and Leaflet! Join Farm Sanctuary on tour in California - mark your calendars and plan to attend an event near you to learn about the important and fun ways YOU can help get out the vote and WIN this victory for animals in November! Download the new campaign flyer here, and lookout for an updated version when we get assigned a proposition number. Join us for updates on where we will be appearing or take to the streets and start your own leafleting!
3. Seek Endorsements! Many people's votes will be influenced by who else is supporting the initiative, so please gather as many endorsements as you can! You can see a list of current campaign endorsers here and get the new guide to endorsement gathering here. Ask your veterinarian, your pastor, your barber shop, and other California businesses to endorse the campaign!
4. Start Writing! The letters section of the newspaper is one of the most read sections of the newspaper because people want to know what their neighbors are talking about. Make sure to check out the campaign guide to writing letters to the editor here.
5. Join ACT - Farm Sanctuary's Advocacy Campaign Team to stay up to speed on events in California! Go to http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/act/activist_form.html

For more information, please visit: www.humanecalifornia.org.

***If you are not a California resident, please copy this information into an email and send to all your friends and family members who live in California.

Why California?
Polling has consistently shown that most Americans oppose the cruelty of veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages, yet it is extremely difficult to convince the legislature to pass laws banning these confinement systems, thanks to the influence that huge factory farming corporations exert over many legislative offices.

The ballot initiative system was implemented to solve this problem, by allowing citizens to place an issue on the ballot for a vote directly by the people. This presents a great opportunity for animals, as it allows animal protection advocates the opportunity to circumvent the pressure that big agribusiness companies exert over the legislature and bring humane issues directly to the people for a vote.

California is one of just a handful of states that allows the ballot initiative system, and it is also the largest agricultural state in the U.S.-providing us with an excellent opportunity to save millions of animals a year from extreme, gratuitous suffering on factory farms.

The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act is supported by a broad coalition of animal protection groups, veterinarians, environmentalists, and food safety advocates, all of whom oppose the growth of huge factory farms in the state and their terrible impacts on animals, the environment and food safety.

***On Tuesday, April 29, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released the results of a two and a half year study, confirming what farm animal advocates have long known: that confining farm animals inside tiny crates and cages, subjecting them to routine mutilations, force feeding them, and pumping them full of antibiotics is an untenable situation. The Pew Commission provides additional, compelling and irrefutable data to prohibit these abuses. Read more.