Updated: Michigan House Concurs With Senate Animal Welfare Bill

All it will take is the governor’s signature and Michigan will become “the seventh state to ban gestation crates, the fifth to ban veal crates, and the second to ban battery cages.” Today the Michigan House of Representatives voted to concur with the Senate version of HB 5127 by a vote of 86-22. This was the second to last step in for legislation that has been the subject of negotiations between agricultural interests and humane interests to find a way to regulate how farm animals are raised without putting those who raise them out of business.

Not surprisingly, animal welfare groups were pleased to see the measure pass the House and head to the governor’s desk. According to the Media-Newswire online press release, “The law phases out veal crates for calves within three years, and battery cages for laying hens and gestation crates for breeding sows within ten years. The state has more than ten million laying hens, approximately 100,000 breeding pigs, and is ranked by the Cattleman's Beef Board as a top veal-producing state ( no official numbers are available ).”

Passing this measure may, at some point, have become a foregone conclusion as many national retailers “are increasingly phasing in crate-free and cage-free products due to consumer demand for better animal welfare.” Veterinarians were left out of the final negotiations as to what the bill would look like, so as this blog posted yesterday, the Michigan veterinarian association was still determining their view on the bill when it passed.

To read yesterday’s post on the bill click here.
To read the Media-Newswire online press release click here.

Posted: 10/02/09