"High court upholds ban on small pig cages" is the headline for Bob Egelko's article I just mentioned on Facebook, where I usually write about only "pretty" things.

So glad that pigs in California will now be allowed enough space to turn around in their cages when they're pregnant and maybe even after they give birth! Scientists say that pigs are even smarter than dogs. Imagine a favorite pet cat or dog being thrown in a cage with other cats and dogs so they can't even turn around! It's amazing to me that we're taught to regard farm animals as insensate food producers when we love our cats and dogs and treat them almost as family members. This first photo does not shout out "Happy Mother's Day." It's not that California will treat factory farm animals well. But Californians will believe that the animals they're eating were not immobilized and otherwise tormented before they wound up on their plates.

Proposition 12 in 2018 was a ballot measure approved by more than 62% of Californians who voted.  This proposition also set standards (not particularly high) for cages holding egg-laying hens and veal calves.  Pork is produced almost entirely in other states, where animals  are held in cages violating the standards.  Such people as Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett weighed in supporting the ban.  Neil Gorsuch said that "many (maybe most) state laws have the "practical effect of controlling extra territorial behavior."  Barrett said that allegations of damage to their industry couldn't outweigh the concerns of California voters.  

The judges dissenting were John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.  

Wayne Pacelle, who took part in launching Prop 12 and now president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy said, "It's a loss for hog factory farmers and a win for the vast majority who want to know that animals raised for food were not immobilzed and otherwise tormented in production..."

AJ Albrecht, manging director of Mercy for Animlas, said, "We celebrate that in the near future, countlress pigs, calves, and hens will no longer needlessly suffer the most extreme forms of confinement."

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-late-edition/20230513/281616719715538