Yes on Question 3 for humane animal treatment

On Nov. 8, Massachusetts residents will be asked to vote on a critical farm animal welfare question. Question 3 supports a proposal to prohibit the sale of eggs, veal and pork from farm animals confined in spaces so small they can’t lie down, stand up, extend their limbs, or turn around. Animal welfare groups, human health organizations, farmers, elected officials, community leaders and more than 500 Massachusetts veterinarians have endorsed Question 3.

Simply put, do we want to buy meat or eggs whose production causes cruel and needless suffering to farm animals? Suffering that includes egg-laying chickens that spend their lives in barren wire cages no bigger than a shoe box, and calves so tightly penned that they cannot lie down or turn around for months at a time.

So often, we purchase products at the grocery store without considering how those products came to be there. We believe the humane raising of farm animals is ethical, responsible, economically viable — and the right thing to do.

We ask readers to join us in supporting this modest and basic welfare standard for farm animals by voting Yes on Question 3.

Elizabeth Brooke Provincetown

— This letter was also signed by the four other members of the Animal Welfare Committee of Provincetown.