PETA’s Cagey Hypocrisy
It saddens me to write this, but an organization I once admired seems to be either very confused, or very deceptive.
Despite currently campaigning for cage-free conditions for farm animals in Europe, PETA has taken the odd position of opposing Prop 12 in California. Prop 12 would go significantly further than PETA’s European campaign.
PETA launched a campaign in Europe calling for an end to the caging of hens and other farmed animals. Yet PETA’s cage-free campaign is far weaker than Prop 12. Regarding hens, Prop 12 mandates a minimum cage-free standard and requires hens be given opportunities to perch, scratch, dust bathe, and lay eggs in nesting boxes. PETA’s campaign has no such minimum standards. Prop 12 ensures that the eggs sold in California will come from cage-free hens, no matter what state the hens were raised in. PETA’s campaign in Europe has no such mandate, meaning that if PETA wins the campaign, European grocers can just sell meat and eggs from caged animals raised in Russian and Chinese factory farms. For the record, I’m still rooting for PETA’s campaign in the EU to succeed because it is a positive step in the right direction.
Prop 12 also mandates that if veal and pork producers want to sell into California they cannot lock calves and pigs in tiny crates. Prop 12 will vastly improve the lives of tens of millions of animals by creating the single strongest farm animal protection law in history. And since it’s the world’s 5th largest economy, California’s actions will send ripples across the factory farming industry worldwide.
So why is PETA campaigning for cage-free conditions in Europe, while opposing Prop 12, which is an even stronger cage-free measure here in the U.S.?
Does PETA Even Know Where It Stands?
PETA (rightly)says: “I completely understand the appeal of battle cries such as ‘Not bigger cages-empty cages!’ and I encourage every kind soul who shares this sentiment to make a difference by going vegan. But…giving a little comfort and relief to animals who will be in those cages their whole lives is worth fighting for.” — Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA
Yet PETA also (bizarrely) says: “We cannot and will not support this initiative because it doesn’t change the fact that hens will suffer far into the future.” –PETA’s Ben Williamson on Prop 12
So, let’s review PETA’s three positions on caging animals:
1) Bigger cages is something to support.
2) Bare-bones cage-free standards within the EU — with no corresponding standards for foreign producers selling into the EU — are worthy of support.
3) Prop 12, which would ban veal crates, gestation crates, and hen cages for factory farms both producing in the state and those selling into the state, while providing hens with vital enrichments, should be opposed.
These three positions just don’t align with each other.
As to Mr. Williamson’s quote about Prop 12: Yes, hens and other animals will suffer in the future. As an animal advocate, there’s nothing I’ll ever do that will eliminate all animal suffering. But we have to keep eliminating as many abuses as we can, and Prop 12 will reduce the pain and anguish for tens of millions of animals confined in tiny cages. Waiting for a magical piece of legislation that will stop all animal suffering in the world will cause us to do nothing, whereas — right now — we have the opportunity to make transformational changes in abolishing the worst confinement abuses that farm animals face.
Where Do the Leading Farm Animal Protection and Factory Farming Groups Stand on Prop 12?
Behind the YES on Prop 12 coalition are the leading farm animal protection organizations in the country, including Mercy for Animals, Humane League, Animal Protection and Rescue League, Animal Equality, Compassion Over Killing, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Humane Society of the United States and the ASPCA. It’s also supported by animal shelters throughout California like the San Francisco SPCA and San Diego Humane Society.
The leading global farm animal protection organizations are both for it, as well. World Animal Protection says, “With certainty, Prop 12 — if passed by California voters — will set the new bar for farm animal protection laws in the United States and across the world.” Compassion in World Farming states that, “Prop 12 will undoubtedly be the most sweeping law for farmed animals ever enacted.”
Animal people vs. Agribusiness and PETA joining forces
If you’re curious who else is opposed to Prop 12, it’s a Who’s Who list of agribusiness trade associations including the Association of California Egg Farmers, National Association of Egg Farmers, California Pork Producers Association, National Pork Producers Council, California Farm Bureau, and more.
The Association of California Egg Farmers’ executive director penned an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune arguing for the measure’s defeat, saying it would harm egg companies. The National Pork Producers Council blasted Prop 12 (and animal activists) saying, “Livestock production practices should be left to those who are most informed about animal care — farmers — and not animal rights activists.”
Animal agribusiness lobbyists have less work to do with PETA on their side.
Final thoughts
I’ve been a volunteer for many of my favorite animal protection organizations over the past sixteen years and once trusted PETA to do what was in the animals’ best interest. But PETA’s hypocrisy in joining with agribusiness to fight what would be the strongest law for farm animals in the world is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in our movement. I never thought I’d see the day that thousands of volunteers are campaigning tirelessly to improve the lives of farmed animals, and rather than helping us, PETA takes the side of the veal, pork, and egg industries.