Thanks to countless hours of grassroots
efforts by more than 1,000 dedicated volunteers, including many MFA members, enough
signatures have been collected to place an important animal welfare measure on
the Massachusetts 2016 ballot.
Right now, pregnant pigs are forced to live
in cages so small they can’t turn around for months at a time. Currently, hens
used for eggs spend the majority of their lives unable to spread their wings. And
at this moment, calves raised for veal are chained by their necks in tiny
crates.
If passed, however, this measure would
require that pigs, chickens, and calves have enough room to turn around, stand
up, lie down, and freely extend their limbs, effectively banning gestation
crates, battery cages, and veal crates. It would also ban the sale of pork,
eggs, and veal from intensively confined animals raised outside of
Massachusetts.
More than 130,000 signatures of Massachusetts
residents have just been submitted to the Secretary of the Commonwealth as part
of a historic campaign to ban the most extreme confinement of pigs, calves, and
hens in the state’s factory farms. That’s more
than twice as many signatures as needed to place the measure on the ballot.
With so many compassionate people speaking
out, it’s never been clearer that the days are numbered for the factory farming
industry’s cruelest practices.
In addition to supporting legislative change,
every one of us can vote “no on factory
farming today by choosing delicious vegetarian
options.