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In January 2015, egg farmers in California will be required to provide 116 square inches per hen, compared to 67 square inches, which is the industry standard. In response to California’s decision to require out-of-state egg suppliers to provide their hens with the same space, the Missouri attorney general has filed a lawsuit to block the new rules, and several other states might do the same. According to the NY Times, “The beef and pork lobbies are also lining up against the California rules in an effort to prevent any new restrictions on raising livestock.”

The “colony cages” shown in this NYT photo are 49 square
inches bigger than battery cages

The first sentence in this NY Times article is alarming: “Hens in California are living the good life. Many can now lay their eggs in oversize enclosures roomy enough to stand up, lie down — even extend their wings fully without touching another bird.” Does the NY Times really think that being permanently imprisoned in slightly larger cages inside a shed with no natural light and no access to the earth constitutes “a good life?” Putting a positive spin on conditions that are merely “less horrible” gives consumers license to eat eggs from hens who have horrible lives. According to the NY Times, “90 percent of the nation’s roughly 280 million laying hens are still in battery cages about as big as a filing-cabinet drawer.” Please share this undercover footage of battery cages taken by Mercy For Animals.

Today, Idaho’s governor signed an “ag gag” bill outlawing the taking of photos and video in factory farms. Thanks to the elected officials who are beholden to the dairy lobby, whistleblowers are now criminals. This undercover video from Mercy For Animals, taken before the bill became law, shows exactly what the dairy industry and all agribusinesses are trying to hide.

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals, and agribusinesses will move mountains to prevent the public from seeing what happens inside. They know from experience that the public opposes an industry in which baby animals are kidnapped from their mothers, confined in cages, mutilated and stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them before being rounded up and slaughtered. The undercover investigators, who wear hidden cameras to document these abuses, risk their safety, financial security and freedom to expose the public to factory farming. Please help make the most of their heroic work by sharing their videos with your networks.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released footage taken by an undercover investigator that shows baby pigs being fed to their mothers at a Kentucky pig factory. According to HSUS, “sows confined in cramped cages known as gestation crates were fed ground up intestines from piglets who had recently succumbed to a highly contagious diarrheal disease at the Iron Maiden Hog Farm in Owensboro, Kentucky. More than 900 piglets died from the diarrheal disease in a two-day period.” While prohibited by state law, the practice of feeding piglets to their mothers is fairly widespread, according to HSUS.

Undercover investigators who work in factory farms say they are haunted by the sounds of mother pigs wailing in gestation crates, but it is because of their heroic work that change occurs. As a follow up to their hog farm investigation, HSUS is asking people to join their worldwide effort to ban gestation crates. Nine states have already done so.

In a NY Times op-ed column about HSUS’ undercover video exposing cannibalism at a Kentucky pig operation, Nicholas Kristof says that “modern factory farms have so much wrong with them,” using gestation crates as an example: “Nine out of 10 sows in America are kept in gestation crates, according to the National Pork Producers Council. These are tiny stalls that are barely bigger than the pigs, who don’t even have enough room to turn around. They live out their adult lives without exercise or meaningful social interaction; it’s like a life sentence of solitary confinement in a coffin, punctuated by artificial insemination and birth. No wonder the animals’ muscles atrophy and they show signs of aggression and stress.”

Gestation crates

Given the sheer number of animals “raised” in factory farms and slaughtered for food, the best way we can help the largest number of animals is to convince consumers to eliminate or phase out their consumption of animal protein – for their health, for the environment and for the animals. “Starter Guides” from the organization Vegan Outreach are one of many tools available to us.

Denmark has banned kosher and halal slaughter. According to British newspaper The Independent, “European regulations require animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered, but grants exemptions on religious grounds. For meat to be considered kosher under Jewish law or halal under Islamic law, the animal must be conscious when killed.” Muslim and Jewish leaders are claiming discrimination, but the Danish government is defending the law, stating “animal rights come before religion.”

Photo from The Independent

In spite of worldwide outrage, the Danish government didn’t intervene in February when the Copenhagen Zoo killed a healthy young giraffe to prevent inbreeding and fed him to the lions. In addition, the Danish government continues to allow the brutal slaughter of hundreds of pilot whales each year in the Faroe Islands. Like every other country that claims to care for its animals while condoning and defending violence toward them, Denmark is being hypocritical. And the government should be held accountable until all forms of animal abuse are abolished. But that shouldn’t stop us from celebrating and promoting their historic declaration that “animal rights come before religion.”