J.S. West to build henhouse compliant with Proposition 2
By John Holland - jholland@modbee.com
J.S. West and Cos., an egg producer based in Modesto, announced today that it will build a henhouse aimed at complying with Proposition 2.
This will be the first commercial project that meets the standards for hen enclosures approved by state voters last year, company president Eric Benson said.
The Humane Society of the United States, a leading backer of the proposition, disagreed. It said the new housing, increasing the floor space per hen to 116 square inches, would leave the birds too cramped.
Benson said he was not surprised by the reaction and plans to move forward with the $3.2 million project. It will house about 150,000 hens — 8 percent of the company’s flock — at one of its operations near Livingston.
“No matter what the Humane Society thinks, we believe at J.S. West that this housing is Proposition 2-compliant,” Benson said.
Jennifer Fearing, senior state director for the Humane Society, said both sides in the battle over Proposition 2 agreed last year that it would not allow the enclosures planned by J.S. West.
“The amount of space proposed here is clearly not enough space for ‘fully extending all limbs without touching the side of an enclosure or another bird’ as defined under Proposition 2,” she said in an e-mail. Read More
As was to be expected, the HSUS is quite upset that anyone is going to continue egg production in California. Their goal was to eliminate the industry in that state, but now there are some that are going to attempt to comply with Prop 2. The HSUS wrote the proposition with vague language so that they could twist the interpretation any way they wanted. In doing so, they figured everyone would be to scared to even try complying. Eventually a judge will have to determine what is and isn’t legal. Until then, expect to hear the HSUS claim any proposal as being in violation of Prop 2.
1 comment:
Let's get this to court and get the law vacated. I've had layers on and off for 67 years. In that time I've yet to see a single one every extend ALL its limbs as far as possible in all possible directions at the same time. This is a 1st HSUS and federal government facilitated effort which will be made step by step to leave the US dependent on foreign imported poultry. Those who suffered and continue to suffer because our REAL manufacturing and industry were gifted abroad by our politicians fronting for corporations should be able to comprehend the same is being done to our farmers as was to our factory workers and to our meat as were our "made in the USA" products. Patriotism begins at home. Let's start buying from our local farmers and meat producers and stop this foreign trade so devoid of both safety and enforced regulations. There is insufficient population in the entire US of 300,000,000 were we ALL employed in policing foreign producers--nor are foreign imports acceptably inspected at our borders. Keep jobs and our food production at home--buy only American.
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