The Ohio legislature should take note: If legislators fail to pass humane standards for farm animals in the implementing legislation for Issue 2, voters may vote this November, 2010 to amend the state constitution and ban the Livestock Care Standards Board from allowing certain cruel factory farming practices.

Ohioans for Humane Farms has submitted to the state attorney general a petition with signatures from voters in 48 Ohio counties. The petition seeks to place an initiative on the November, 2010 ballot to amend the state constitution to:

1. Require the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to establish minimum humane standards for certain farm animals within six years after adoption of the amendment. The minimum standards would:

ï‚· Prohibit a farm owner or operator from tethering or confining any calf raised for veal, pig during pregnancy, or egglaying hen, on a farm, for all or the majority of a day, in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up, fully extending his or her limbs, or turning around freely. This prohibition would not apply during certain times set forth in the amendment, including, but not limited to, during veterinary treatment, certain livestock exhibitions, and scientific or agricultural research.

ï‚· Require that the killing of cows and pigs on farms be performed in a humane manner, as set forth in the amendment.

ï‚· Prohibit the killing of cows and pigs on farms by strangulation as a form of euthanasia.

ï‚· Prohibit the transport, sale, or receipt, for use in the human food supply, of any cow or calf too sick or injured to stand and walk.

2. Provide that any farm owner or operator who violates these standards is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $1,000, or both.

3. The measure would contain definitions for certain terms such as farm, farm owner or operator, fully extending his or her limbs, enclosure, and turning around freely.

If the Secretary of State approves the petition which is attached at the end of this article and can be downloaded, Ohioans for Humane Farms will launch a massive effort to obtain more than 600,000 voters' signatures necessary to place an amendment to the state constitution on the ballot.  

The petition initiative is already supported by Farm Sanctuary, Ohio SPCA, Ohio Sierra Club, Toledo Area Humane Society, Geauga Humane Society, Ohio League of Humane Voters, Humane Society of the United States, Center for Food Safety, United Farm Workers, Consumer Federation of America, and Center for Science in the Public Interest. Animal Law Coalition has submitted its endorsement.

If the measure is placed on the November ballot and voters approve, the Livestock Care Standards Board would have 6 years to implement these humane standards. 

"Ohioans oppose cruelty and believe that all animals, including farm animals, deserve to be protected," said Gene Baur, president of Farm Sanctuary. "In November, Ohioans will have the opportunity to make their voices heard and phase out some of the worst factory farm abuses."

Other states 

This past October, 2009 Michigan enacted a similar measure that will eliminate the worst of the factory farming practices, battery cages for egg laying hens, gestation crates for pregnant sows and tie stalls for veal calves. Also, in 2009 Maine joined Colorado and Arizona in banning these cruel practices for pregnant sows and veal calves.  California with its successful Prop 2 will ban cruel confinement for egg laying hens as well. Oregon and Florida ban cruel confinement of pregnant sows. A bill similar to California's law, Prop 2, remains pending in New York's Assembly. 

•  In March 2009, HBO documentary Death on a Factory Farm revealed appalling mistreatment of pigs on an Ohio factory farm, including immobilization inside tiny crates and the killing of pigs by hanging them execution-style.
•  Across Ohio, crated calves are tethered by the neck and can barely move, pigs in severe confinement bite the metal bars of their crates, and hens can get trapped and even impaled in their wire cages. There is overwhelming science demonstrating that such extreme confinement is detrimental to the animals' welfare.
• Caging animals in high densities leads to higher concentrations of animal waste and air and water pollution, as well as a greater risk of disease transmission such as Salmonella.

For more information, visit ohiohumane.com.