Once upon a time there was a place called California. It wasn’t a perfect place, to be sure, but the people there were striving to continually do better.
One day, the people of California passed a law saying they would only sell eggs that came from chickens living in more humane conditions. The people were pleased, and the egg farmers didn’t really care.
But there were some people who weren’t pleased. They were the bad people who raise hogs. They don’t want chickens to have humane living conditions. Really? Why do a bunch of hog farmers give a rat’s ass about chickens?
So the hog farmers approached a US Congressman from Iowa, named Steve King, and convinced him to add an amendment to the farm bill that would make all state laws regulating animals, including the one in California, illegal.
But the people rose up and let their voices be heard, and the King Amendment was removed from the bill.
Now those hog farmers were not going down easy, so, through their lobbyists, they approached Attorneys General in other states, and convinced the ones in Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma to sue California to not be so darned humane.
The lobbyists then began writing opinion pieces, like one published in The Wall Street Journal, stating that people would have to pay too much for eggs if this law was not defeated. Indeed, the commentaries never once mentioned the animals or their living conditions. These lobbyists know some humans are cheap bastards, and any appeal to save a buck gets their attention.
So what happens next? Will the AGs win their suit, or will California prevail on behalf of chickens everywhere?
I don’t yet know, gentle readers, but I do know this is not a fairy tale. It’s playing out here in the US.
BTW, why DO hog farmers give a rat’s ass about the living conditions for chickens anyway? Are they afraid they may be forced to improve living conditions for hogs next?
In a word, YES.
Dogpaddling Through Life 
People look out for their own financial interests first and other factors afterward.
The irony is, as I mentioned Saturday, most people care about the welfare of animals raised for food, so it would be in their financial best interest to shut up and let the law go forward.
Hell yes, let’s hope good things are catching!
Greed is a powerful enemy and it takes great vigilance to defeat it.
Yes, they are. If mankind pursued love for all living creatures, as hard as they pursue money, then what a different world we would inhabit Rumpy. x
Isn’t it funny how humans worship something that only has value because they say it does. Money is nothing but paper with colored ink.
Spot on Rumpy…everything is an energy, and we choose what we put our energy into. Right now I am house sitting and caring for a beautiful marmalade tabby cat. He is fast asleep beside me on the chair… Xx
How peaceful!
🙂 x
Money has value only at the moment of exchange. I’m not surprised at the hog farmers; I’m surprised at the politicians.
Hey, hog farmers make campaign donations.
damn rite! and more and more often, i hope that soon (if not in this life, then the next) i’ll be vegetarian !
I guessed it, Rumpy. That’s the reason. And as always for profit, that’s so sad. I hope they made the right decision.
Humans make no sense to me Easy. Us dogs would never do things the way they do.
naaah, Rumpy, we wouldn’t. I’m not sure if it was the right decision that humans rule this world….
Living in more humane conditions for animals is the best!!! It’s one of the good things both for humans and animals.
The hog farmers better pay attention to their own back yards, the industrial raising of hogs is presently under attack from disease. If people seriously want to do something about the state of the food in America, we need to make a stand. Eat good meat or no meat. Stop buying industrially raised pork, until they start behaving themselves.. the only way to deal with these people is through their pockets. Same goes for chicken frankly. And while we are at it lets change the word inhumane. These are not humans. They do not deserve the treatment we mete out onto other humans, they deserve to be treated like the majority of us treat our good dogs and cats. They need animane treatment. There I go again .. good article.. c
It is a problem tone sure. Perhaps a better word would be compassionate.
wow! Just wow!
Gosh, I hope the chickens win. The Boxers make sure that our hens are safe and sound, and able to peck and scratch where they like 🙂 Wish life was like that for all chickens.
Every driven by one? Factory hog farms are the most disgusting places ever. Seriously damage the environment. Inhumane. It’s all about profit. Great Britain is fighting this, too.
Thanks for the reminder – must check up on it again
this makes me so sad…while I don’t eat meat, I do know others do…but why can’t these animals be raised in an environment that is good for them…and I will NEVER again buy eggs from a battery farm
I want this story to have a happy ending….
Great article about an issue that too few people are talking about. My guess would be that the hog farmers are trying to fight the war on someone else’s turf before it comes to their own (I believe a previous commenter said this). Unfortunately state regulations on something like this will work the same way that state regulations work on everything else. If one state mandates humane treatment for farm animals, major agribusinesses will take their operations to a different state that doesn’t care (I.E. conservative anti-regulation states). It blows me away that they’re using a dollar argument on eggs. EGGS ARE SO FREAKING CHEAP. You could double the price and I’d still buy them.
Written between the lines is this inherent evil that the hog farmers are afraid of. If/when animal welfare laws are passed regulatory lines are drawn. Ergo, inspections of farms can be made and you know what forbid someone maltreating animals is found out. It’s a perverse “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality that wants to rule all that happens to the poor TORTURED animals so they can continue to feed their DEEP POCKETS. There’s always an agenda and it isn’t just to get affordable prices to consumers. That would be way too benevolent an argument to pursue. Thanks, Rumpy.
I once had the misfortune to install electronic gates at a pig farm in Crawfordsville Indiana, it was a horrific place! pigs so crowded together that each morning they went around removing all of the pigs that had died in the night from suffocation!! 😦
well at least we got something sort of right in Calif, hope we don’t give in to the hog lobbyists