Animal-welfare activists have split over an initiative on the Nov. 6 statewide ballot that would phase in requirements to provide more space for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and calves raised for veal in California.
The dispute over Proposition 12 centers on the amount of space the measure would require for each animal, and a multi-year delay for the new standards. Some activists say the measure is inhumane because it does not give poultry and livestock enough room to live in.
Starting in 2020, it would ban the sale of eggs from hens confined to an area with less than 1 square foot of usable floor space per animal. And beginning in 2022, hens would have to be kept “cage-free,” although that could include an indoor area that provides 1 to 1.5 square feet of space for each hen as long as they can move throughout the structure. Read more