Historic statewide campaign for farm animals; volunteers needed!

[Guest guest]

Hello, everyone!

I’m writing to update you on a huge ballot initiative

we will be seeking to protect farm animals in California! This initiative would send a strong and loud message

that factory farming of animals in obviously, overwhelmingly inhumane

conditions is simply not acceptable. The initiative is supported by

the Humane Society of the United States www.hsus.org , Farm Sanctuary www.farmsanctuary.org,

and other local and national organizations.

 

The initiative, which we’ll be collecting signatures

for to get on the November 2008 ballot, will outlaw

the three most cruel housing confinement structures for animals on factory

farms: (1) battery cages for egg-laying hens (the cages so cruel

that they have prompted the popularity of cage-free eggs); (2) gestation crates

(crates in which pigs used for breeding are kept throughout their entire

pregnancies; the crates are so small that the pigs—who are

pregnant—can never turn around or even lie down comfortably); and (3)

veal crates (the poster child of factory-farming cruelty, though battery cages and

gestation crates are just as bad). You can read about each of these by clicking

on Eggs, Pork, and Veal on www.factoryfarming.com.

(The campaign website will launch soon.)

 

There is precedent for these bans, as all three of these have been deemed so cruel that they

have been outlawed in the EU, and gestation crates have been

outlawed in Florida, Arizona and Oregon, veal

crates in those latter two states as well. This initiative would be so

significant, though, in large part because this is California—the

largest agricultural state, and a trendsetter for the rest of the country. It

would also protect chickens!

 

All together, throughout the state, we need approximately 440,000

valid signatures of registered CA voters. The hard part is that we have just

150 days to do it! That’s where you

come in! We will need

as many people signature-gathering as possible, as well as people volunteering

to help in other ways, such as phone-banking, processing petitions,

researching upcoming events and identifying good gathering locations,

publicizing the campaign, contacting businesses for their support, coordinating

volunteers, donating money (can’t forget that), and more. This will be a tremendously exciting campaign, and a

terrific opportunity for us all to work together in securing an important

victory for farm animals!

 

We will be having a formal kickoff to the

campaign soon, where you will learn all you’ll need to know. I will

update you next week about the date, time, and location.

 

I am coordinating the volunteering efforts throughout the

Bay Area, so, if you haven’t already contacted me, please be in touch

with any interest, questions, concerns, ideas, etc., you may have! Please

forward this email to anyone who you think would be interested! I can also put

you in touch with the coordinator for other areas around the state, if you or

people you know don’t live in the Bay Area.

 

I’m so excited about being involved in such an

important initiative, and I hope you’ll join in this effort! Looking

forward to hopefully seeing and working with you all soon!

 

Thanks for caring about animals!

More updates to come!

 

Nora

 

“True human goodness, in all its

purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude toward

those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a

fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from

it.”

~Milan

Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being