I neglected to mention this with all the hoopla of the presidential election and the disappointment attending the various anti-gay ballot measures that went through Tuesday, but there was an extra spot of good news in California. The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, passed overwhelmingly, requires that "calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely". It essentially bans the use of battery cages for chickens, gestation crates for sows, and veal crates. There's some debate about the health and food-safety benefits to human consumers of allowing animals some mild freedom of movement and/or access to the outdoors, but it's pretty hard to deny the cruelty in keeping an animal confined in an area barely (if at all) larger than its body for the entirety of its life. Good job, California. Now go and get your shit together on equal rights, and we'll talk again.
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Hooray, animal freedom!! How enlightened of California. How effing ironic.
Posted by: Lauren | Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 10:04 AM
We all know where this kind of thing leads: men marrying chickens.
Also: little baby chickens with man faces.
Posted by: Rosserford | Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 11:26 AM