Protect animals across the United States:
Defend the laws against cruelty the meat industry wants to overturn
The meat industry is desperately trying to overturn a key animal protection law–California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farmed Animals Act (commonly referred to as “Proposition 12”).
This historic law passed in 2018 prohibits the cruel caging of mother pigs, hens used for eggs, and baby calves in California. It also prohibits the in-state sale of meat from pigs and calves and the sale of eggs resulting from the extreme confinement of animals.
Meat producers don’t want to follow these basic protections, so they have filed multiple lawsuits to strike down the law. One of these suits is currently on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If successful, the lawsuit would not only overturn key provisions of Proposition 12 but also threaten other important laws across the country that keep the products of extreme cruelty out of the marketplace.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture can help protect Proposition 12 and similar laws by publicly expressing its support for these protections.
Meat industry sues to strike down minimum standards
Animal agriculture groups are extremely upset by the recent legislative successes of Animal Equality and others.
For example, pig producers in Iowa are livid over California’s Proposition 12 because the law prohibits the sale of pork products in California that come from operations using gestation crates (a highly inhumane method of confining mother pigs in the pork industry).
Producers want to eliminate these sales restrictions, so their industry trade group—the National Pork Producers Council—is leading one of the lawsuits seeking to overturn the law. Millions of mother pigs will continue to suffer in gestation crates if they succeed.
Animals across industries are at risk
If successful, this lawsuit could not only overturn farmed animal protection laws like California’s Prop 12; it would also threaten laws across the country that protect animals from other terrible cruelties.
Dogs in puppy mills, animals in fur farms, and those in laboratories subjected to painful experiments are also at risk of losing some of the basic protections they have.
The Biden Administration must reverse course
The Biden administration has not withdrawn the briefs filed by the prior administration in support of the meat industry’s lawsuits. The industry is actively using these briefs to support its Supreme Court case.
We need your help to stop the unraveling of animals’ most basic protections and this attempt to negate essential state laws.