Ohioans for Humane Farms has petitioned Ohio's Attorney General to include a farmed animal protection measure on the statewide November ballot. The proposed measure would allow voters to require the newly enacted Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to prohibit the following common meat, egg and dairy industry practices:
These modest restrictions will prevent the cruelest practices affecting farmed animals, promote food safety, benefit Ohio family farmers and safeguard the environment.
• Intensive confinement of animals in crates and cages so small that they are unable to fully extend their limbs and wings, or engage in other basic natural behaviors for nearly their entire lives
• Allowing "downer" cows - those too sick or injured to stand or walk on their own to enter the human food supply by dragging, pushing, shocking and beating them onto the kill floor
• Inhumane methods of killing sick and injured animals, such as execution-style hanging of pigs, as one Ohio farmer was captured perpetrating on film
The petition includes signatures from Ohio voters in 48 counties, and is backed by Mercy For Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, Ohio SPCA, Toledo Area Humane Society, Geauga Humane Society, Ohio League of Humane Voters, Center for Food Safety, United Farm Workers, Consumer Federation of America, Center for Science in the Public Interest, and many others. Mobilizing a large volunteer base, Ohioans for Humane Farms will endeavor to gather 600,000 additional signatures from Ohio voters.
>Measures banning cruel confinement systems, similar to the Ohio proposal, have been highly successful in other U.S. states, including Michigan, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine and Oregon. The Ohio proposal, however, is the most comprehensive farmed animal protection measure yet, as it not only aims to ban cruel confinement, but abuse of sick and injured animals.
Click here to get involved with this important campaign.
