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The Supreme Court has affirmed the dismissal of claims against California’s Proposition 12—one of the strongest farmed animal protection laws in the world!
Since Prop 12 passed in 2018, the meat industry has been fighting this monumental law. Placing profit over animal well-being, the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation fought the state of California all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Supreme Court has shown that it values the will of the people. This means that a significant hurdle to enforcement of Prop 12 and similar laws has been removed, and we expect that animals in many states will soon have some relief and be spared a horrible life in extreme confinement. AJ Albrecht, Mercy For Animals’ managing director for the United States and Canada, shared:
Mercy For Animals is overjoyed that the Supreme Court has affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of Big Agriculture’s lawsuit. The outcome of this case supports the will of California voters and rejects the industry’s baseless arguments against Proposition 12. Today we celebrate that in the near future, countless pigs, calves, and hens will no longer needlessly suffer the most extreme forms of confinement.
Mercy For Animals will keep calling for meaningful changes to improve the lives of all farmed animals in the United States by promoting the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act, introduced by Sen. Cory Booker and Reps. Jim McGovern, Earl Blumenauer, and Grace Meng.
Intensive confinement is one of the cruelest practices in the meat and egg industries. For mother pigs, it means being kept in cages during pregnancy that are barely larger than their bodies. For calves raised for veal, it means spending their short lives in tiny hutches. For laying hens, it means being crammed so tightly into wire cages that they can’t even spread their wings.
Mercy For Animals and our allies fought hard to convince the Supreme Court that upholding Prop 12 was the right thing to do. The Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Clinic filed an amicus brief with the court in support of Prop 12. The brief was filed on behalf of a coalition of law professors and animal protection organizations, including Mercy For Animals. Attorney Rebecca Garverman, a clinical fellow at Harvard, stated:
Our brief illustrates the cruelty and inhumanity of this kind of confinement with photographic and videographic evidence of pigs suffering in these horrific gestation crates. We urge the Supreme Court to uphold the right of states to regulate products sold within their borders by keeping the products of such cruelty off grocery shelves.
This is a huge victory for animals, and it’s thanks to you! Please take a moment to celebrate this accomplishment.
The next crucial step in strengthening protection for animals is to pass federal legislation that places the responsibility of beginning to solve various problems in the U.S. food system where it belongs—on corporations and agribusinesses. Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to support the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act.