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Tell Secretary Vilsack: Do your job!

The life of mother pigs on factory farms is truly horrible. They live almost their entire lives in gestation crates, which are so small and tight they can’t even turn around. These intelligent, deeply feeling animals live in their own filth, in sunless factory farms where they’re confined next to other pigs living in the same misery. Pigs enjoy running, playing and bonding with other pigs, but for these poor animals, being caged in one position 24/7 is all they’ll know.

We've made great strides working to eliminate the use of extreme confinement methods like gestation crates, most notably through the passage of California's Proposition 12, our nation's strongest farm animal welfare law. But all of that is at risk thanks to a segment of the pork industry and their allies in Congress who are set on using this year's Farm Bill to nullify Prop 12 and other state level animal welfare laws. And to make matters worse, they appear to have an ally in U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who is using his position to support a narrow segment of pork producers, instead of advocating for animals, voters who want better welfare standards for animals, and the many American farmers who have already committed to upholding more humane standards for farm animals.

We need your help to demand that Secretary Vilsack does his job and respects the wishes of the millions of American voters and consumers who rejected this farm animal cruelty at the ballot box.

TAKE ACTION

Please send a message to Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack urging him to oppose any efforts to use the Farm Bill to nullify important state animal welfare laws like Prop 12.

This action alert is for U.S. residents. International advocates, please visit Humane Society International.

Your Message

Subject*

Decision Maker

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Dear Secretary Vilsack,

As an American, I am writing to urge you to change course in your public support for using the Farm Bill to nullify California's Prop 12 and other similar state-level animal welfare measures. Millions of Americans have made it clear they reject the cruelty of extreme animal confinement and associated public health risks, and as a member of this Administration, you should respect the clear will of the people. Yet you continue to publicly side with the segment of the pork industry more concerned with the bottom line than the humane treatment of farm animals.  

Instead of looking to the future and supporting producers who are meeting the demands of American consumers for improved welfare of animals, you have become a willing advocate for pork producers that unashamedly cling to the bottom-scraping practices of industrial-scale cruelty.  

Shifting away from the use of cruel gestation crates offers enormous economic opportunities for American farmers. Please listen to the market leaders who have already made significant investments to meet emerging public demand for products that are not the result of intensive confinement, rather than to the corporations responsible for destroying family farms and for polluting our air and water. The market is adjusting, and plenty of producers (industry sector leaders and small-scale farms alike) are already able to supply pork raised without intensive confinement. 

There is little public or even congressional support for nullifying Prop 12. On the other hand, more than 200 federal legislators on both sides of the aisle, over 4,000 farmers across the country, more than 500 veterinarians, and 200 organizations representing agriculture, animal protection, consumer, food safety, public health, environmental, labor, legal and local government/preemption concerns have spoken out against federal legislation that aims to nullify Prop 12 and related state and local laws.

Please respect the wishes of American voters and consumers and end your support for nullification of democratically approved farm animal welfare protection laws in our states.

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