Breaking: Supreme Court rejects meat industry challenge to historic farm animal law
By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson
California’s historic farm animal protection law, Proposition 12, bans the sale of products that come from farm animals in extreme confinement, like pigs in gestation crates. The HSUS
Today, the United States Supreme Court declined to take the North American Meat Institute’s appeal of its lawsuit challenging Proposition 12, widely considered the world’s strongest law for farm animal protection.
Proposition 12 bans the extreme confinement of egg-laying chickens, mother pigs and baby calves used in the veal industry. The law also prohibits the sale in California of eggs, pork and veal from facilities that confine animals in cruel cages. The Humane Society of the United States led the campaign to pass Proposition 12, which was approved by California voters in a landslide vote in 2018.
The Supreme Court’s outright rejection of the North American Meat Institute’s appeal from its losses in the lower courts is consistent with a long line of prior court rulings, and it reinforces the long-held position of the HSUS and the Humane Society Legislative Fund that states have the right to pass laws protecting animals, public health and safety. This decision is critically important to all of our sales bans enacted to protect animals and consumers—from banning the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet shops to banning the sale of cosmetics tested on animals.
Along with a group of allied organizations, the HSUS intervened in the lawsuit on the side of the State of California to defend Proposition 12. The HSUS was represented in this case by lawyers at Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila and at Molo Lamken, as well as lawyers with the HSUS’s Animal Protection Law department.
The Humane Society Legislative Fund is also working with congressional allies to encourage the Biden Administration to support and defend California and other States’ right to set humane standards to protect farm animals, wildlife and other animals. Last month, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., led a letter signed by 27 legislators urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Merrick Garland to withdraw briefs filed by the Trump Administration in support of industry challenges to the California law. Reps. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., made a similar appeal, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., is mobilizing an additional letter from legislators representing other states with cage-free sales laws.
Now the case will go back to the lower court, where we will continue the fight. But it is our hope that rather than continuing frivolous lawsuits and wasting money, the meat industry will focus on eliminating the cruel caging of animals.
The extreme confinement of farm animals that Proposition 12 outlaws in California produces animal cruelty and suffering unequaled in any sector. Egg-laying chickens, mother pigs and baby calves are confined in cages so small they can barely move. These sensitive, inquisitive animals are virtually immobilized in filthy conditions for nearly their entire lives. Extreme confinement of farm animals also increases public health risks and has been listed as a top driver of zoonotic disease emergence by numerous scientists and even a United Nations report.
Our public policy work and corporate social responsibility campaigns have transformed the landscape of farm animal protection in recent years. Along with HSUS-championed laws against the extreme confinement of farm animals and sales of cruel products, more than 200 of the largest food companies have decided to adopt cage-free policies and convert to cage-free systems.
Today’s news demonstrates loud and clear that the future is cage-free.
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
No podemos seguir con esta violencia esto tiene que acabar ya no podemos permitir tantos abusos y tanta crueldad ya no más violencia por favor esto tiene que acabar
Tenho esperança de que um dia os seres chamados “humanos” tornem-se sensíveis ao sofrimento dos animais. Obrigada a todos os envolvidos nesta luta! Muito triste o manter uma criatura confinada a vida toda numa gaiola!
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!! NO ANIMAL SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE THIS! EVER!!
WE HAVE GOT TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE FOR US &
ANIMALS!! TOO LONG FOR THESE ANIMALS SUFFERING!! ANYTHING CAN BE DONE IN USA!! WE JUST HAVE TO PUT OUR MINDS FOR IT & WIN!! THIS IS A VERY SICK, SAD, MESS!!! THESE ARE GOD’S CREATIONS!! DON’T FORGET!!!
Well said, MARY BETH keep this good fight of what’s truly right and never evil.
WHY is this such a FIGHT? I don’t eat pork anymore after learning what a pig suffers in a DAILY to be on my plate. And ALL people out here would NOT eat pork if they learn about the follow day we eat! I’m teachers no my 13 Grandchildren the same! People WANT better conditions for our food we eat! FARMERS: JUST DO IT!!!
All this farm abuse and slaughter time needs to be addressed and fixed. Killing these poor animals on a time schedule per hour is horrific. In this world everything revolves around making money, these are live beings who feel pain and are scared to death. Please .are this process more humane for them.
Too long has a blind eye been turned about the atrocities humans have inflicted upon living breathing farm animals used for human food . It’s past time the brutal ways these precious animals are raised & killed is stopped .
I’m glad to hear we are making some strides in the fight against factory farm’s, and the abuse these poor animal’s suffer. What, we have no Reps. to stand and raise a voice for the animal’s? We will continue our fight for the animal’s and put them ahead of the almighty dollar!
Well said Debra, keep this good fight of what’s truly right and never evil!
VEGAN, A NOUN , EXAMPLE? SOMEONE WHO TRULY CARES FOR THIS ROCK AND ALL WHO RESIDES ON HER……….
If only all people would make the commitment to become at least a vegetarian, then the need and production of meat would decrease
There should be a HUGE, WORLD WIDE outcry about the horrific cruelty our Beloved animals endure throughout the world. We are more than half way through 2021, high time for all animals to be treated humanely and with respect. For animals to be caged like they are is outrageous! It is time, NOW, for these cages to be a thing of the past … NOW, not in 2022/2023 and beyond …. NOW!!!!
I can’t believe the way these animals are treated, it is so cruel and inhumane and totally disgusting, we need to do something about it.