by Allan Kornberg, M.D.
As Farm Sanctuary’s executive director, I spend a lot of my time traveling across the country to advocate on behalf of farm animals. But at the end of the day, I call Massachusetts my home. That’s why I’m excited to announce that, as part of our Anti-Confinement Campaign, we’ll be working in the Commonwealth this year to pass an important bill that would ban the cruelest forms of confinement for farm animals — the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.
It’s not news that the animal agriculture industry views farm animals as mere commodities. It’s this widespread conception that has led to institutionalized cruelty in the form of battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates. In these confinement systems, millions of egg-laying hens, calves and breeding pigs spend the majority of their lives in dark warehouses, behind bars and barely able to move. Farm Sanctuary’s Anti-Confinement Campaign aims to eliminate these particularly abhorrent conditions through state legislation, the ballot box and public education and outreach, and, thanks to our members and supporters, we’ve got a successful history to build upon in 2011 and in coming years.
Seven states have now enacted laws to ban one or more of these confinement systems. This year, we hope to add Massachusetts to that list. This bill, recently introduced by Senator Robert Hedlund and Representative Jason Lewis, would prohibit the cruel confinement of farm animals in a manner that prevents them from standing up, lying down, turning around freely, or fully extending their limbs.
At least 17,000 egg-laying hens in Massachusetts are confined in battery cage facilities each year. As a resident of the Commonwealth, I know that if compassionate people of Massachusetts — and Americans everywhere — knew the truth behind factory farming, they would reject these shocking and abusive practices. In fact, the city of Pittsfield has already enacted a local ordinance prohibiting these three confinement systems. And Cambridge and Brookline have passed resolutions encouraging residents to avoid products of intensive confinement, including veal and eggs from battery caged hens.
By working together with our members and supporters, I believe it’s only a matter of time before we can change the hearts and minds of lawmakers across the U.S. and make these cruel cages and crates things of the past. If you’re a fellow Commonwealth resident, please join me in supporting the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act and help put this crucial law on the books. If you live elsewhere, you can still help us build on this momentum by taking action today to push for anti-confinement legislation in your state.
please give these animals room to move and live like we do.
Posted by: gaby | February 10, 2011 at 02:53 PM
help all animals from cruelty
Posted by: gaby | February 10, 2011 at 02:57 PM
This is great news. My mother lives in Senator Hedlunds' district. She grew up on an old-time hog farm with lots of mud and steamed waste food for feed. She abhors the way hogs are treated these days.
Posted by: Matt | February 11, 2011 at 03:42 PM
IT IS ALWAYS "GREED" THAT MOTIVATES THESE ANIMAL FARMS TO TREAT THESE INNOCENT FARM ANIMALS IN A HORRIFYING MANNER. THEY LOOK AT THESE FARM ANIMALS AS
"OBJECTS" AT THEIR DISPOSAL. I AM NOT SURE HOW THEIR OWN FAMILIES, INCLUDING THEIR OWN CHILDREN, VIEW THESE CRUELTY. PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT AND NOTHING ELSE MATTERS TO THESE GREEDY FARM ANIMAL OWNERS.
Posted by: Angie Dano | February 11, 2011 at 04:34 PM
Please keep us up to date on how we can help. My family lives in Massachusetts and they would all support this.
Posted by: Adri | March 17, 2011 at 03:30 PM
Oui je suis à 100 % pour les humains qui oeuvrent pour les déplorables conditions des animaux d'élevage.
Moi-même suis adhérente à une association de protection des animaux de ferme. Nous devons faire en sorte auprès de ceux qui nous gouvernent pour que les animaux soient reconnus vivants et donc sensibles à la douleur mais à leur environnement.
Merci pour ce que vous faites.
Cordialement - Sylvie MOREAU
Posted by: MOREAU Sylvie | June 24, 2011 at 11:09 AM