In a big win for animals, yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court let stand three important laws: California and Massachusetts’ bans on cage confinement, and California’s foie gras ban. Foie Gras California originally enacted a ban on foie gras — diseased and abnormally enlarged liver produced by inhumanely force-feeding ducks and geese — in 2012. The law imposes a fine of …
After months of deliberation, it looks like the 2018 Farm Bill will finally receive a vote in Congress and arrive on the President’s desk by the end of the week. The bigger news, however, is that the King Amendment is dead. The final version of the Farm Bill will not include that dangerous provision, which would have rolled back state …
In an enormous victory for the treatment of farmed animals, California’s historic Proposition 12 passed with over 60% of the vote in yesterday’s midterm elections. This landmark legislation will ban cages for egg-laying hens, gestation crates for pregnant pigs, and veal crates for calves, and ban the sale of products made from keeping animals in these cages, which are so …
This week, Missouri became the first state to enact a law regulating the use of the word “meat” in food labeling. The term, according to the law, should be solely reserved for food made from “traditionally harvested” livestock or poultry. Tofurky, one of the top makers of plant-based meats, filed an injunction in federal court to prevent the enforcement of …
Late last month, consumers filed a suit against multiple pork producers (including Smithfield, Hormel, and Tyson Foods) accusing them of colluding to drive up the cost of pork products. The class-action case alleges that these producers have been working together to artificially inflate the prices for years by “coordinating their output and limiting production.” A day after the case was …
Prompted by desperate dairy industry attempts to boost curdling sales and impede the rapidly growing plant-based market, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will begin to enforce regulations defining milk as an animal product — preventing plant-based milks from being labeled “milk.” This misguided move, announced by FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, would apply dated FDA standards to the market …
On Monday, Compassion Over Killing submitted a legal comment urging USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service not to adopt their proposed rule eliminating federal regulations requiring pig carcasses to be cleaned prior to incision. COK joins several consumer advocacy groups, including Food & Water Watch, Center for Food Safety, and Government Accountability Project, in opposing this measure. Not only does …
On Wednesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out the largest raid in a decade at Salem, Ohio meatpacking plant Fresh Mark. According to NPR, this raid was part of a yearlong investigation into Fresh Mark’s hiring practices. Most of the 146 employees arrested are still being detained in Ohio and Michigan, where they’re awaiting deportation proceedings. This raid …
Compassion Over Killing has joined a coalition of animal protection organizations in sending a letter to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, urging him to veto a dangerous bill on his desk. Titled “Farm Act of 2018,” Senate bill 711 effectively strips North Carolinians of the right to file nuisance lawsuits against neighboring pig factory farms. The Coalition, including Farm Sanctuary, …