On this day in vegan history · November 4, 2008
California Votes to End Extreme Farm Animal Confinement
In the country's biggest agricultural state, voters told egg, pork, and veal producers that a cage too small to turn around in was no longer legal, by a nearly two-to-one margin.
The facts
- Vote
- 8,203,769 to 4,731,738 (63.42% yes)
- Election date
- November 4, 2008
- Animals covered
- Egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs, veal calves
- Effective date
- January 1, 2015
On November 4, 2008, California voters passed Proposition 2, officially titled Standards for Confining Farm Animals, with about 63 percent in favor. The initiative, backed by the Humane Society of the United States under president Wayne Pacelle, barred farms from confining egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs, and veal calves in ways that stopped them from lying down, standing up, fully extending their limbs, or turning around freely. The law carried misdemeanor penalties for violators but exempted transport, rodeos, fairs, and slaughter. Producers were given more than six years to adapt before the confinement rules became operative on January 1, 2015.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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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.
Official title and summary of Proposition 2, California Secretary of State
Source: California Secretary of State, 2008 Voter Information Guide -
A person shall not tether or confine any covered animal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from:
Text of the statute enacted by Proposition 2, Section 25990
Source: Animal Legal & Historical Center
Why it still matters
It was the first time American voters, not a legislature, banned extreme confinement statewide, and the margin proved the issue could win big even in farm country. Other states and later California measures like Proposition 12 built directly on the precedent it set.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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