The upcoming Massachusetts referendum on animal welfare standards – requiring more space for poultry, pigs and calves – boils down to “a class thing,” says the executive director of a group that is challenging the proposal in court. “There isn’t a movement of the proletariat in favor of this stuff. This is Dr. Oz and the Hollywood people and the six-figure non-profits in Washington trying to dictate food options,” Brian Klippenstein, of Protect the Harvest, told Vice News. Protect the Future, based in Missouri, is bankrolling a lawsuit by two Massachusetts residents who say the ballot language violates the state constitution by combining unrelated topics – farming practices and marketing regulations.
The referendum would ban production and sale of chicken eggs and meat from hogs and calves raised in tight spaces, beginning in 2022. Producers would be obligated to give animals enough room to stand, turn around, extend their limbs and lie down. Diane Sullivan, one of the plaintiffs, says the proposal would drive up egg prices and hurt low-income people,including her. An official of the Humane Society of the United States, which supports the referendum, said, “The prevention of cruelty to animals is a near-universal value.” Vice News says Massachusetts’ top court was scheduled to hear arguments on the lawsuit on June 8.