Pregnant pig protection makes headway

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Pregnant pig protection makes headway

 

 

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USA: January 21, 2002

 

 

TALLAHASSEE - Animal rights groups have won a victory when the Florida

Supreme Court cleared the way for a statewide vote on whether pregnant pigs

can be kept in close confinement.

 

 

By a unanimous vote, the state's highest court ruled that a proposed

constitutional amendment protecting sows from immobility is succinct and

accurately portrayed, two criteria necessary to put the issue before voters

in a referendum.

At the center of controversy are gestational crates in which the animals are

housed for much of their lives. Farmers say the crates allow them to keep

more pigs in smaller areas, increase production and reduce the cost of labor

and feed.

 

Research cited by opponents of the practice say the crates prevent pigs from

turning around, causing psychological and physical problems ranging from

chronic stress to urinary infections.

 

With court approval in hand, backers of the petition led by Pompano

Beach-based Floridians for Humane Farms, a coalition of animal rights groups,

need 488,722 signatures to put to the issue to voters in November. So far,

backers say they have 235,000.

 

While approving the ballot language, three of the seven justices wrote a

separate opinion calling on lawmakers to make it tougher to change Florida's

constitution.

 

In recent years, the constitution has been amended to ban commercial net

fishing and to require the state to build a high-speed train, issues critics

say should be left to lawmakers.

 

" I cannot help but observe that the issue of whether pregnant pigs should be

singled out for special protection is simply not a subject appropriate for

inclusion in our State constitution, " Justice Barbara Pariente wrote.

 

" Rather it is a subject more properly reserved for legislative enactment. "

 

Backers of the proposed amendment said they are well on their way to putting

the issue before voters in November. Florida would be the first state to

constitutionally bar such practices.

 

" We only resorted to the initiative process after the legislature failed to

deal with this issue of cruel and unusual treatment to animals on factory

farms, " said Wayne Pacelle, vice president of the Humane Society of the

United States.

 

Agricultural groups opposing the amendment say that only two small hog

producers in Florida use gestational crates. But the state's lax laws

allowing for public initiatives made it a perfect target for groups that have

been unsuccessful advancing similar protections in other parts of the United

States.

 

" The reason why we're the first is that Florida allows for such trivial

things to be put on the ballot, " said Frank Hall, spokesman for the Florida

Farm Bureau. " Their feeling is if they can get it passed in Florida, there

will be a domino effect and they can move into bigger hog producing states. "

 

The ballot title reads simply: " Animal Cruelty Amendment: Limiting Cruel and

Inhumane Confinement of Pigs During Pregnancy. " Given the emotional nature of

the issue, Hall said farm groups hold out little hope of defeating it at the

polls.

 

 

 

Story by Michael Peltier

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE