In a tremendous victory for animals, yesterday a federal
judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by several Big-Ag states challenging
California’s precedent-setting law requiring factory farmers to provide
egg-laying hens with at least enough room to stand up, turn around, and spread
their wings. The judge also barred states from ever filing a similar lawsuit in
the future.
This decision is the result of a lawsuit filed earlier this
year by state officials from Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky,
and Iowa challenging California’s AB 1437, a law requiring out-of-state egg producers
who wish to do business in California to provide egg-laying hens with enough
space to engage in natural behaviors. AB 1437 is the counterpart to
California’s historic Proposition 2, an overwhelmingly popular ballot
initiative that effectively prohibits factory farmers from cramming animals in
cages so small they can’t turn around or stretch their limbs.
This decision marks a crushing defeat to an industry that
routinely cuts corners and minimizes costs at the expense of animal
welfare.
Time and again, undercover investigations by Mercy For
Animals have exposed the horrific treatment of egg-laying hens who endure lives
filled with misery and deprivation in filthy wire battery cages. MFA investigations at two of California’s largest egg factory farms, released just weeks before California
voters cast their ballots on Prop 2, contributed to the outcry against these
intensive confinement systems and made Prop 2 one of the
most popular ballot
initiatives in California history.
Watch hidden-camera footage from a Mercy For Animals’ investigation inside a California battery-cage egg farm below.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the days are numbered
for many of the factory farming industry’s cruelest practices.
Although this legal
victory will help reduce the suffering of millions of animals, the best thing
that consumers can do to prevent needless cruelty to farmed animals is to
choose healthy and humane vegan alternatives to meat, milk, and eggs. Learn
more at ChooseVeg.com.