Over the past 20 years, Americans have shown that they support improved welfare standards for farm animals. Fifteen states now ban extreme confinement, which has improved the living conditions for millions of animals. These laws generally focus on laying hens, mother pigs, and baby cows raised for veal, ensuring that the animals have more freedom of movement—at least enough room to turn around and spread their limbs within their pen or cage. Two of the strongest state laws against the extreme confinement of farm animals are California’s Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, commonly known as Proposition 12 or Prop 12, and the Massachusetts Act to Prevent Cruelty to Farm Animals, known as Question 3. Both laws were passed as ballot measures that received overwhelming voter support in each state, and both laws ban not only battery cages for hens, gestation crates for pigs, and veal crates for calves, but also currently prohibit the in-state sale of products from these confinement systems.

Though there is still a long way to go before all farm animals have truly adequate living conditions, these extreme confinement bans are a huge improvement and reveal that Americans truly care about the wellbeing of farm animals.

However, these common sense, science-based laws are under attack, even though they garnered immense support from voters. “Big Ag” factory farming operations have continued to challenge these initiatives, and recently, the Trump administration has also taken aim against farm animal welfare. Read on to learn about the latest attacks on farm animal welfare and what you can do to help us fight back.  

The Trump administration is suing the state of California over the improved animal welfare standards for laying hens, which were included in the Proposition 12 measure passed in 2018. Prop 12 requires laying hen cages to be large enough that each animal can "lie down, stand up, fully extend its limbs, and turn around freely." The current administration wants to remove these protections because of false claims that increased animal welfare standards have led to increased egg prices.

In reality, avian flu outbreaks around the country have led to fewer eggs on store shelves, and egg companies have made the decision to raise egg prices to increase their profits during this market shortage. Additionally, extreme confinement of animals has been found to increase the spread of disease, and thus improved animal welfare standards where animals have more room between them, actually make it less likely that disease will spread amongst hens. Extreme confinement bans make the industry safer—both for animal health and human health.

The Trump administration’s lawsuit is nothing new. California has previously been sued by six other states over their laying hen regulations, and the law was upheld in every instance. This new federal lawsuit would do nothing to lower egg prices and is largely viewed as a ploy to draw attention away from the true cause of egg price hikes (and other high-profile controversies). However, court rulings have become increasingly inconsistent during this current administration, and we will be watching the outcome of this case closely..

Protections for pregnant pigs are one of the most frequently attacked provisions within extreme confinement bans. Many of the state laws, including California’s Prop 12, banned “gestation crates,” which are pens that are so small, the animals cannot turn around, groom themselves, or interact with other animals. This cruel confinement, which is used to house pregnant pigs, harms the animals both physically and mentally, and banning these crates has greatly improved the welfare of pigs.

In 2023, the National Pork Producers Council challenged these bans, and in a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the animal welfare laws were upheld. During this case, major egg industry companies also filed briefs with the court in support of Prop 12, showing the egg industry’s growing acceptance of current cage-free standards. While this victory has secured the laws in other states too, like MA’s Question 3, it has not stopped the pork industry from continuing to take legal action. Earlier this year, Iowa pork farmers also lost their latest case against Prop 12, securing another important victory for animal welfare.

However, the fight does not end there. Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa has introduced a new bill that aims to rollback animal welfare protections in all states. According to experts at Harvard, this so-called “Food Security and Farm Protection Act”, S.1326 (previously known as the EATS Act) could, “jeopardize over a thousand public health, safety, and welfare laws.” Republicans have also recently introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives called the “Save Our Bacon Act,” H.R. 4673. This bill  specifically targets both Prop 12 in CA and Question 3 in MA, with the hope of blocking these states from carrying out these voter approved measures for improving farm animal welfare. It is crucial to the health of mother pigs and other farm animals that these harmful bills do not become law.

FOUR PAWS is proud to be a member of the Defeat EATS Act coalition and is asking you to join us today!

Please contact your federal legislators and urge them to vote NO on all versions of the EATS ACT, which includes opposing bills S.1326 and H.R.4673. Tell them you care about farm animal welfare, and you oppose these destructive bills that hurt animals, farmers, consumers, the environment, and the rights of local governments.

While it’s positive that the extreme confinement bans have been upheld so far, we recognize that there are more attacks likely on the horizon, and since the bans only cover a handful of states, there is still a long way to go to improve the lives of farm animals. No matter what challenges lie ahead, FOUR PAWS will continue to stand with our coalition partners to uphold the extreme confinement bans, while fighting for farm animals’ wellbeing and welfare across the United States.