Action for Animals Austin

The Humane Society of the United States just celebrated the signing of this important bill. It states that California will become a cage-free state by 2015. So, chickens raised for egg production must have more space to live. However, I see no mention of chickens raised for food. Also, there is no mention of how chickens will be killed. Though these chickens will be "humanely raised" it is unlikely that they will be "humanely killed." I do support this bill. Anything that would alleviate the suffering of farm animals does make sense since we cannot liberate them now. However, what I've heard many times while tabling locally is that people will eat chicken, cows, pigs, etc, if they are humanely raised. It now becomes our job to remind people that humanely raised does not mean humanely killed.

Please see Neel Parkkh's excellent short video titled "Free Range" on the subject of free-range chickens. He'll demonstrate my point better. By the way, Neel is a student at the University of Texas. 

As some people say, "As California goes so goes the rest of the nation." Something like that. So, this could mean that other national groups can now try to get similar bills passed in other states. Let's hope so.

• Factory Farms
• Chickens
• california
• free range
• humanely raised