It appears as though once again the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is on the verge of successfully changing a state’s animal husbandry rules. Often the HSUS uses the ballot initiative approach to affect change, but in Michigan the threat of a ballot initiative was enough to motivate groups representing the pork and poultry industries to work with the HSUS on a compromise.Now, the apparent compromise between the two sets of interest groups may become a new law in Michigan as legislation that “would impose stricter animal husbandry rules on Michigan’s pork and poultry industries” is working its way through the state legislature. According to an article by Ken Anderson in Brownfield’s Ag News for America, the bill has passed the Michigan House by a vote of 87-20. The next stop for the legislation is the Michigan Senate.
Anderson quotes Sam Hines, executive vice-president of the Michigan Pork Producers, as stating, “You know, the uncertainty that might come with the passage of a ballot initiative—and even the negative implications that would have—was something that both our poultry and pork producers wanted to avoid [.]” Hines believes the compromise is more similar to the 2008 Colorado law, which was also the product of a compromise between the HSUS and Colorado pork producers, than it is to the Proposition 2 ballot initiative that passed in California.
According to Hines, the bill will require the producers to transition to some different practices. For instance, stalls can be used for breeding purposes, but once the sow is ‘“confirmed pregnant”’ they are moved to an area where they can co-mingle, lie down, move around, and extend their extremities. While many producers would have to make some transitions to meet the new law’s requirement, the bill does give them ten years to do so.
To read the article on the legislation by Ken Anderson, click here.
Posted: 9/24/09
