We are really excited as an industry about doing this. This is a thrilling moment for us in egg production.
— United Egg Producers Chair, Bob Krouse
Signature gatherers and donors fooled again
There now appears to be a race to the bottom. And HSUS has just surpassed AHA in the enabling of animal exploiters.
The central provision of this deal would not even go into effect for another 18 years! (If ever.)
Of course, the industry gets what it wants right away.
• Immediately, the Washington and Oregon ballot measures are scrapped.
• Immediately, the industry gains positive publicity and avoids the negative PR of a ballot measure media campaign.
• Immediately, states would be explicitly prevented from outlawing cages ““ or doing anything to help laying hens beyond what the egg industry is happily adopting on the federal level.
Make no mistake. This is a frontal assault on state anti-cruelty laws and on the rights of citizens and state legislators to enact meaningfully protections ““ and within a reasonable time frame.
This deal would preempt state anti-cruelty laws as it pertains to the treatment of laying hens and would eliminate any chance of outlawing hen cages (or making other housing or husbandry reforms) in any state of the nation.
Keep in mind that once the federal legislative process is underway, there is no way of knowing — let alone controlling — what the final outcome will be. It’s all pie in the sky at this point. What, if any, enforcement will there be? The industry-controlled USDA? We already know what kind of job they do! What, if any, criminal penalties will there be? (Probably none.)
KEY ISSUE:
For literally decades, farm animals and humane organizations have been haunted by the fact that commercial slaughterhouses have been largely beyond the reach of state animal cruelty laws due to federal preemption.
Now, for the first time ever, the industry is seeking to extent the federal preemption doctrine into factory farms as well. And, incredibly, HSUS is all too willing to oblige.
Bradley Miller
The Humane Farming Association (HFA)
San Rafael, CA 94912
hfa.org