The Issues

Proposed Legislation and Public Policy

Ballot Initiatives

Farm Sanctuary works to enact ground breaking policy through ballot initiatives. Ballot initiatives allow for a direct vote by the people, after a number of signatures are gathered to place a question directly on the ballot. This is often where animal advocates can make the most change for farm animals! Please take action today. 

Pending for 2010:

Ohio
Ballot and Title: TBA – An initiative to ban certain cruel industry practices
Position:          Vote YES
Status:            Signature gathering is under way to place the                         proposed measure on the ballot
Summary:        This measure will allow Ohio voters to provide guidance to the newly enacted Livestock Board and set certain minimum humane standards that will prevent cruel factory farming practices in Ohio, including:

• Extreme confinement in tiny cages for months on end: Tens of thousands of veal calves, 170,000 breeding pigs, and approximately 27 million egg-laying hens in Ohio are confined in cages and crates so restrictive the animals can barely move an inch for virtually their whole lives. Many don’t even have enough room to stretch their limbs or turn around. (Learn more about Farm Sanctuary’s Anti-Confinement Campaign.)

• Allowing “downer cattle” to enter the human food chain: Allowing sick and injured animals into the food supply threatens public health and food safety. Cattle too sick or injured to stand or walk on their own to slaughter should be humanely euthanized, not inhumanely dragged or pushed while being shocked and beaten onto the kill floor to be used for human consumption. (Learn more about Farm Sanctuary’s No Downers Campaign.)

• Inhumane methods of euthanasia for sick and injured animals: In Ohio, a factory farmer was videotaped killing sick pigs by hanging them execution-style from a tractor, leaving them to writhe in the air for minutes on end. He was acquitted of cruelty for the hangings, a verdict Ohio’s agribusiness community hailed as a “huge victory,” because Ohio has no law specifically requiring humane farm animal euthanasia methods.

Find out how you can help!

Pending for 2009:

Ohio
Ballot and Title: Issue 2 – A Constitutional Amendment to Protect Cruel Factory Farms
Position:          Vote NO on Issue 2
Status:             Passed
Summary:        In the wake of a landslide victory for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act in California last year, a voter approved measure to ban veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages, factory farm proponents in Ohio are determined to prevent such reforms in their own state. Agribusiness lobbyists were able to persuade their friends in the state legislature to put an anti-reform proposal – Issue 2 – on the ballot this November, a measure designed to protect factory farm interests through a constitutional amendment. This amendment created a state board to establish “standards governing the care and well-being of livestock and poultry” in Ohio. Unfortunately, this board will be dominated by proponents of cruel factory farm practices such as the intensive confinement of veal calves, breeding sows and egg-laying hens. A majority of voters were persuaded to vote in favor of Issue 2 by misleading ads that presented the measure as a positive step for animal welfare. In reality, it was little more than a thinly veiled attempt by Big Ag to seize more power and ensure that factory farms can continue to do business as usual, regardless of the cruelty they inflict. The good news is that real reform is coming to the Ohio ballot this year. Learn more.

Pending for 2008:

Arizona
Ballot and Title: Proposition 105 - The "so-called" Majority Rules                           amendment
Position:            Vote No on Prop 105
Status:               Failed!       
Summary:          Just two years after Arizona animal advocates successfully secured the passage of a ballot initiative ensuring the humane treatment of calves and mother pigs on factory farms, special interests struck back with Prop 105, an initiative aimed at limiting the efficacy of citizen ballot initiatives on the 2008 ballot. Prop 105 would have assigned a "no" vote to every registered voter who did not vote in that election – making it extraordinarily hard for any initiative to ever pass. Thankfully voters in Arizona saw through this unfair measure and voted down prop 2 on November 4th! Find out more about NO on Prop 105.

California
Ballot and Title: Proposition 2 – The Prevention of Farm Animal                           Cruelty Act
Position:            Vote Yes on Prop 2!
Status:               Passed!       
Summary:          On November 4 Californians successfully enacted Proposition 2 to  end the practice of cramming farm animals into cages and crates so small the animals can't even turn around, lie down  or extend their limbs. Thank you California for advancing monumental campaign!

Farm Sanctuary has worked on a number of successful initiatives including those in Florida to ban gestation crates and Arizona to ban gestation and veal crates.