Farm Animal Confinement Measure Qualifies For California’s November Ballot

Californians will vote this fall on whether to strengthen the state’s laws governing how farm animals are confined and raised.

The proposed measure that qualified for the November ballot late Friday builds on a previous voter-approved initiative and a separate state law.

In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 2. It required egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs and calves raised for veal to be placed in cages big enough for them to lie down, stand up, turn around freely and fully extend their limbs.

Two years later, the Legislature passed a law that bans the sale in California of shelled eggs from hens raised in violation of those standards — even eggs that come from out-of-state.

Both efforts, which took effect in 2015, have so far survived legal challenges, though the latest federal lawsuit is still pending.

Now, animal rights advocates led by the Humane Society are back with a new initiative.

It would increase the minimum space requirements in which those animals could be confined. And it would expand the ban on sales to pork, veal and liquid eggs — including products grown outside California.