Sometimes when you look at a ballot proposition it is best to look not at the language of the proposed initiative, but who is behind it. Such is the case with Proposition 2 on the November ballot.
Proposition 2 would mandate new housing standards for egg laying chickens at great cost to California’s egg producers and potential health risks to the rest of us.
It is sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. But this is not your mother’s or your aunt’s Humane Society. It is now led by seasoned political operatives whose agenda goes far beyond protecting animals.
And according to a UC Davis study, if they are successful, California’s egg industry and the $600 million in economic activity it generates annually as well as thousands of jobs would be wiped out. A whole industry that is a key for California agriculture lost in one fell swoop.
Its leaders are vegans and former members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Who is the ALF? Check out their website and judge for yourself.
Part of what the ALF stands for is that milking cows is rape, aquariums are “fish prisons”, and collecting honey from bees is exploitation.
So if you are giving your kids milk with their Cheerios STOP IMMEDIATELY! Don’t you know that the cows were sexually assaulted to provide that milk! And before you spread honey on your biscuit just remember the exploited and downtrodden worker bees that have been forced into making honey and are getting slave wages to give you that sweet nectar. And get rid of your child’s aquarium with the goldfish. They have been sentenced to “fish prison” without being read their Miranda rights and without adequate legal representation.
Ridiculous? You bet.
Cows eat grass and hay. Cows then produce milk and must be milked twice a day. That is what cows do. Do they want us to pour all that milk on the ground? And what about milk for kids and their growing bodies?
Bees gather pollen. Bees then make honey. That is what bees do. What do we do with all the honey if we don’t eat it?
And chickens eat grain. Chickens then lay eggs. That is what chickens do. Do they need private rooms to do that?
Proposition 2 promotes the “free range lifestyle” for egg laying chickens, but the ALF is even against that form of egg farming. Don’t believe me? Check this out.
Now I am sure the people pushing this initiative will say they are only for responsible farming methods and that they reject the radical agenda of ALF. Don’t believe that for a second.
The campaign manager for Proposition 2, is an admitted “former” member of ALF and was arrested and plead guilty to vandalizing fur stores in Memphis, Tennessee. It is rumored that he still has contact through “communiqués” from his fellow travelers at ALF.
I commend the Humane Society for making a big deal out of the Michael Vick dog fighting case because it was a big deal. And I commend their work for aggressively going after cock fighting in this country. Both are barbarous acts that should be prosecuted harshly. There is a special place in Hell for those who abuse animals and I hope it is a cage with no water and they are forced to fight each other every day for eternity.
But this isn’t about dog fighting and cock fighting. This is about the food supply of California and the nation. And it is about Californians being able to afford basic staples such as eggs, the largest source of protein for working families.
They are safely produced here in California and have been for years. Many of our egg producers have been in the business for generations and they are now being asked for no apparent reason to change the cost effective way they produce eggs to one that will be more expensive, create a larger footprint on the land, and force us to buy our eggs from places like Mexico that do not have the same food safety standards as we do. The preferred method of the Humane Society as laid out in the initiative would also put the chickens in direct contact with their own waste increasing the risk of disease for humans.
How about a little salmonella with your bacon and eggs?
The ones pushing this initiative have taken over a venerable American institution, The Humane Society and turned it into a political operation bent on quietly pushing the vegan lifestyle on the rest of us by restricting what we can and cannot eat. They have a political PAC for campaign contributions and they spend millions lobbying government annually just like everyone else in Washington and Sacramento.
And it won’t stop at Proposition 2. These anti-meat Luddites are political extremists who not only want to restrict what you eat. Just like the original Luddites who fought progress during the Industrial Revolution and smashed the looms of England’s woolen mills, they want to smash the means of animal food production to further their vegan agenda.
Eggs and chickens are the first step.
Still not convinced about their agenda? Just read the quotes from Paul Shapiro, a senior director at the Humane Society:
“Cage free does not mean cruelty free.” Or this, “The best thing consumers can do is simply leave eggs out of their shopping carts”.
The issue to them is not eggs from caged chickens vs. cage-free chickens. It is to get rid of all food from animals. Period.
Personally I don’t care if they want to be vegans or vegetarians or Rosicrucian’s for that matter. Just means more meat for the rest of us. But I strongly object to them telling me what I can and cannot eat while destroying a whole industry in the process.
Finally, I read that a laying chicken can produce eggs for about 2 years but can live 5-7 years longer. What’s next? Retirement homes and pensions for laying chickens?
Don’t laugh. This is of course California.