Ohioans for Humane Farms has petitioned Ohio’s Attorney General to include a farmed animal protection measure on the statewide November ballot. The proposed measure would allow voters to require the newly enacted Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to prohibit the following common meat, egg and dairy industry practices:
• Intensive confinement of animals in crates and cages so small that they are unable to fully extend their limbs and wings, or engage in other basic natural behaviors for nearly their entire lives
• Allowing “downer” cows – those too sick or injured to stand or walk on their own to enter the human food supply by dragging, pushing, shocking and beating them onto the kill floor
• Inhumane methods of killing sick and injured animals, such as execution-style hanging of pigs, as one Ohio farmer was captured perpetrating on film
These modest restrictions will prevent the cruelest practices affecting farmed animals, promote food safety, benefit Ohio family farmers and safeguard the environment.
