Advocates seek new farm regs
Animal advocates launched a campaign yesterday to put a ballot question before Massachusetts voters that would prohibit raising certain farm animals in small cages and crates and would effectively ban the sale of eggs, pork and veal from animals kept in such tight spaces, wherever they are raised.
A coalition that includes the Humane Society of the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal Rescue League of Boston announced the campaign for a 2016 ballot question that would phase out certain confining spaces for breeding pigs, veal calves and egg-laying hens and would require farm animals be kept in spaces where they can stand up, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs.
Citizens for Farm Animal Protection rallied on the State House steps, describing current practices in raising these animals as “torture” in which they spend their lives in cages barely larger than their bodies.