At this very moment, millions of egg-laying hens are suffering in egg-factory cages throughout California. But wait. Didn’t voters overwhelmingly enact a ballot measure 10 years ago that outlawed those cages?

Well, they sure thought they did.

The measure was called Proposition 2. Voters were told, by both sides of the debate, that its passage would ban egg-industry cages statewide by 2015.

Instead, the state’s egg industry merely invested in new cages and modified old ones. This reversal of voter intent was made possible by the refusal of Prop 2’s sponsor, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), to correct the measure’s obvious drafting errors prior to putting it on the ballot.

Now, without so much as a passing mention that California was promised to be cage free by 2015, this scandal-ridden, Washington D.C.-based group has once again bought its way onto our ballot with yet another set of false promises: Proposition 12.

Deceptively promoted as a cage-free measure, this backsliding proposition, in fact, explicitly legalizes the continued use of egg-factory cages until, at the very least, 2022.

And even that date is tentative, because Proposition 12 also would allow the Legislature to make additional changes without the consent of voters.

This capitulation to the egg industry is the result of a public relations alliance between the co-opted HSUS and the industry’s national trade association, United Egg Producers.

At taxpayer expense, these out-of-state organizations are misusing California’s initiative process in order to replace our current hen-housing law with the guidelines of United Egg Producers.

Proposition 12 would legalize the cruel cages many Californians believe they voted to prohibit 10 years ago.

Despite its shortcomings, California’s current law (Prop. 2) does at least say that hens be given enough room to “ … fully spread both wings without touching the side of an enclosure or other egg-laying hens.”

Proposition 12 would repeal that voter-enacted law and allow egg factories to give each hen only one square foot of cage or floor space.

This cruel and unethical space allotment (one square foot per hen) is an outright betrayal of farm animals and California voters. And it’s precisely why Central Valley Eggs, the largest factory-farm complex ever to be built in California, actively supports this rotten initiative.

No help for pigs or calves, either

For misdirection, the very same proponents who botched Prop. 2, and who promised that California would be cage free by 2015, are now claiming that Proposition 12 will regulate the practices of out-of-state pork and veal producers. Don’t fall for it.

Even in the unlikely event that Proposition 12’s constitutionally flawed provisions survive the inevitable years of legal challenges (the defense of which comes at taxpayer expense), Congress is already advancing legislation to render all such interstate regulations null and void.

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Letters: County failure | Prop. 15 pain | Climate strategies | Questionable column | Global relief And while claiming to regulate other states, Proposition 12 allows the intensive confinement of dairy calves in small crates right here in California. This inexplicable and outrageous exclusion further underscores the fact that this measure is not about protecting animals, but rather it’s about protecting Central Valley Eggs and other major egg factories.

Proposition 12 is a cruel and reckless exploitation of California’s initiative process which not only harms farm animals, but it also puts in danger a wide array of existing consumer, animal, and environmental protection laws.

Find out why Friends of Animals; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; the Humane Farming Association; Californians Against Cruelty, Cages, and Fraud; Showing Animals Respect and Kindness; Action for Animals; and many others all oppose Proposition 12.

Please visit: www.NoOnProposition12.org

Bradley Miller is president of the Humane Farming Association (HFA) and spokesperson for Californians Against Cruelty, Cages, and Fraud.