Arizona Votes to Ban the Crate

On November 7, 2006, Arizona voters approved Proposition 204, the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act, by a wide margin. The initiative, put on the ballot by the coalition Arizonans for Humane Farms and backed by the Arizona Humane Society, the Humane Society of the United States, and Farm Sanctuary, made it a crime to confine a pregnant pig or a calf raised for veal in a space too small for the animal to lie down, fully extend its limbs, or turn around freely. That target was the gestation crate and the veal crate, standard equipment on factory farms, being reduced by ballot initiative rather than legislation. The law gave producers a long runway, six years, before enforcement began.