On the docket of animal advocates

Some of this is old news, but we'd be remiss if we didn't note some recent suits filed by animal advocates. (We'd also be remiss if we didn't thank PETA for background on all these issues.)

The ALDF is suing Mendes Calf Ranch and the California Department of Agriculture, alleging that calves at the ranch are held in crates which violate Penal Code 597t, which requires an "animal confined in an enclosed area [to be provided] with an adequate exercise area." (Hat tip: An Animal-Friendly Life.) An earlier suit alleging that gestation crates violated the same provision was dismissed on jurisdictional/standing grounds. The court in that case interpreted 2004's Proposition 64, which limits who may sue businesses, to apply to cases pending; the issue of retroactivity is on appeal. As the ALDF blurb notes, the named plaintiffs are alleging personal harm, a key requirement in the post-Prop. 64 landscape, because they, as consumers of dairy products "have suffered by paying for illegally-produced goods that they now know to have come from cows who have been cruelly raised in the process." For more on the dairy industry in California, check out Unhappy Cows.

The Humane Society of the United States is advancing a novel theory in an attempt to ban the production of foie gras in New York State. They argue that, because the production of foie gras causes disease in the birds who are force-fed and killed, the liver is "adulterated," per New York law.  Best Friends points out the difference between the statute and the interpretation given it in regulations, which might be a crucial difference. Governor Pataki recently agreed to subsidize a foie gras facility in the Hudson Valley.

The Animal Protection Institute is suing "exotic animal farms" in Ohio for violating the Animal Welfare Act in their treatment of primates and other animals. One proprietor is quoted as saying the animals, some of whom come from entertainment industries, "live 100 times better than they did before they came here." Given the abuse of animals face in the movies and TV and in circuses , that may be true, but it doesn't take much.

Comments

[teresa]

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