In a ruling that split the party line, the Supreme Court upheld California’s Prop. 12 with a 5-4 vote last week. Hailed as a revolutionary victory by animal activists and a death sentence by factory farmers, the court’s ruling — in a case involving livestock kept in very small cages — is seen as supporting the power of states to enact rules that have effects beyond their borders.
Proposition 12, “Animal Confinement Initiative,” passed with 61.2 percent of the vote in Santa Barbara County in 2018, only to be tied up in court ever since. The law requires farms to comply with set spatial standards for calves, chicken, and breeding pigs, some of the most confined animals in factory farming. Traditionally, chickens are kept in wire “battery cages,” calves raised for veal are confined to solitary standing-room pens, and mother sows are relegated to “gestation crates” where they spend most of their lives.
The initiative requires that these animals are able to turn around and extend their limbs, while also closing the crucial loophole that led to the lawsuit — products that don’t comply with these directives are prohibited in California, including products from out-of-state farms. In terms of animal welfare, it’s no great leap; in terms of animal welfare protections in the law, Prop. 12 is unprecedented and has far-reaching influence.
