More Prop 2 Opinion

Proposition 2: Good for chickens, bad for chicken farmers

In the current economy, it's better to let the market sort out the cage-free issue instead of forcing ranchers to make expensive changes to their practices.
George Skelton Capitol Journal October 20, 2008

SACRAMENTO — The odd duck on the Nov. 4 California ballot is the measure calling for chicken rights.The right for egg-laying hens "to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely" in their little cages, to quote from Proposition 2.

The initiative, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, also applies to pregnant pigs and caged calves being raised for veal. But the largest pork producer in California already has said it will stop using small crates. And there are few veal operations in the state.

So Proposition 2 really is about California's 19 million egg-laying hens. Calves and pigs were added, I suspect, because strategists concluded that voters relate more to mammals than to squawking birds. Read More

Proposition 2 continues to stay in the news in California. With only two weeks until the election, more people are starting to see the folly in the HSUS backed plan to eliminate raising livestock indoors. On Oprah’s show last week, Wayne Pacelle made a reference about how livestock owners didn’t raise them indoors in the 1800’s. I doubt he realizes how ridiculous that statement was. If he wants our industry to regress in that manner, what other industries will they want to do the same? Would they want the same for the communication, transportation, or human health industries?