The passing of Prop 2 is a monumental victory that will afford millions of animals the
opportunity to stand up, turn around, and spread their wings, and it should be celebrated
by everyone who cares about animals. To all of us at PETA, and all the other animal
rights people who also protested the passage of Prop 8 by standing on street corners,
working the phones, and talking to friends and family about the bigotry of Prop 8—this
isn’t a “one or the other” situation. Abusing animals is always wrong, and discriminating
against gays is always wrong. We’ll continue to fight against the ban on gay marriage,
and we hope that we can have your support in our efforts to eliminate cruelty to animals.

Here’s hoping that Prop 8 still may find it’s way to a defeat this election year.

The American College of Poultry Veterinarians, decried the measure as economically disastrous for California egg producers

Congratulations to The Humane Society and Wayne Pacelle. You can read the full LA Times article here.

By endorsing cage-free eggs at the end of his column, George Skelton implies that he finds industrial chicken-farming practices abhorrent. I disagree, however, with his counter-assertion that the marketplace is an appropriate arbiter of ethical issues. Would the marketplace ever have eradicated slavery?

When business losses are at stake, and when our legislators rely on businesses for campaign funding, only the ballot initiative process will allow a motivated minority to raise questions that merit statewide consideration.

You can read George Skelton’s full column here.

The biggest issue I have with Prop 2 is that it promotes the concept of “Happy Meat.” HSUS is really pushing the idea that these animals are only one measure and opposable thumbs away from starting their own band. The first piece of information you are given on the the Yes on Prop 2 website under “Facts” is Prop 2 “stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals.” Statements like that give the false impression that if this measure passes, the standards of factory farming will be changed so dramatically that it is now OK to eat dairy/meat. “You’ve done your part, now go out and reward yourself with a basket of New Original Recipe KFC Chicken Strips!”

What it really means is that animals are going from this:

To this:

I don’t know about you, but I still don’t see too many smiling faces in the cage free picture above. Oh, I forgot, they will still be debeaked, so they can’t smile. Woops!

There is one reason why I am voting Yes on Prop 2. The only benefit I can see is that it will add an additional financial burden on these factory farms. You certainly can’t count on Americans to change their behavior out of compassion, but you can count on them changing their behavior out of greed. Increasing the cost of production will in turn increase the cost at the grocery store. If there’s one thing Americans like, it’s their cruelty served to them as cheap as possible. So despite taking issue with virtually everything this bill stands for, I will still be voting Yes on California’s Prop 2 measure this November.