Cage-Free California: Landmark Animal Welfare Legislation Implemented

FACE Executive Director Brooke Haggerty and Wayne Pacelle, HSUS President & CEO

FACE Executive Director Brooke Haggerty and Wayne Pacelle, HSUS President & CEO

The FACE Foundation joins many other animal welfare organizations in California and around the country in celebrating the implementation of California’s Proposition 2. Prop 2, also known as Cage-Free California, was overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2008. On January 1, 2015, the law went into effect.

This important legislation requires that all egg-laying hens raised in California must be able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their wings. Along with Prop 2, California Assembly Bill 1437 (enacted in 2010) requires that all whole shell eggs sold in California (regardless of where they were produced) must be compliant with Prop 2 requirements. This legislation also went into effect on January 1st.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, 260 million egg-laying hens in the U.S. are confined to barren wire battery cages. These cages trap each hen into a space the size of a shoe box, so small they cannot move freely or perform basic natural behaviors. Prop 2 goes a long way towards ending this inhumane confinement of hens.

Chickens

The Prop 2 initiative also requires that all breeding pigs and veal calves have the same ability to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs. FACE is proud to join the HSUS and other animal welfare advocates in celebrating this victory for the animals. We urge all egg producers and retailers to follow the cage-free guidelines.

To learn more about Cage-Free California, click HERE. To read HSUS President Wayne Pacelle’s blog about the issue, click HERE.