Animal rights fight to ballot

Egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs and calves raised for veal could not be confined in restrictive enclosures in California that did not allow them to extend their wings or limbs, under an initiative that qualified Wednesday for the Nov. 4 ballot.

Sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, the Treatment of Farm Animals statute is likely to generate spirited debate between animal rights activists and farmers who contend it would raise prices for consumers.

Since there is no veal production in California and farmers are voluntarily phasing out confining pigs in breeding crates by 2008, the initiative primarily targets the state's 19 million egg-laying hens.

Scott Macdonald, spokesman for Californians for Sound Farm Animal Agriculture, an industry group that opposes the initiative, called it "poorly" written and predicted it would raise egg prices.

"It would be tremendously expensive and, in fact, drive the egg industry out of the state," Macdonald said, noting the proposed law would require dramatically more space for hens.

Keeping hens in cages, he said, allows farmers to better control diseases that harm them.

But Paul Shapiro, director of the Humane Society's factory farming campaign, said the organization was "heartened" the measure qualified for the ballot.

"Californians will have a choice this November as to whether they want to enact a very modest anti-cruelty measure that would improve the lives of millions of animals in California," Shapiro said.

Some hens, he said, are currently kept in such tight confines that the room they have to maneuver is "less than a letter-size sheet of paper."

The measure, which required 434,000 valid signatures to be certified by the secretary of state's office, would prevent farmers from confining hens in the most restrictive crates or cages by 2015.

Hens would have to be provided with enough room to fully extend their wings and turn around.

Although the European Union is in the process of phasing out cages altogether by 2012, the California law would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Macdonald said because California voters are accustomed "to these types of initiatives on the ballot, hopefully we can carry the day in November" and defeat the measure.

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• Call Aurelio Rojas, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5545.