On a warm evening last summer, a few hundred people crammed into the backyard of the Beverly Hills home belonging to Tracy Torme, son of crooner Mel.
As guests struggled to navigate past each other and the hors d'oeuvres, speakers took to a makeshift stage. The event was a fundraiser for Proposition 2, the state ballot initiative that would outlaw confining hens, pigs and calves in cages so small that the animals can barely extend their limbs.
"I know it's crowded here," shouted Jane Velez-Mitchell, a TV commentator and one of the organizers of the event. "But at least you can turn around!" The crowd cheered.
The treatment of farm animals has been on the radar of national animal welfare organizations for more than two decades. But no initiative or legislation has raised the profile of the issue like Proposition 2 has. The measure, aimed at protecting creatures that many urban Californians may never have seen up close, has captivated animal welfare advocates and galvanized their opponents well beyond state lines.
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres promoted it on her program and co-hosted a gala fundraiser with her spouse, actress Portia de Rossi. Oprah weighed in last week,hosting both sides of the debate on her show.
Meanwhile, the measure's opponents have received hundreds of thousands of dollars not just from California farmers but also from out-of-state agricultural interests, concerned that their practices could be targeted next.
Proposition 2 would take hens, veal calves and pregnant pigs out of tiny crates and cages and require enough space for them to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs without hitting an enclosure or another animal, and turn around freely. Since there are few veal farmers in California and the state's largest pork producer has already said it would eliminate small crates, the initiative would mostly affect 19 million laying hens and the egg industry that farms them.
About 95% of those birds are kept in so-called battery cages, in groups ranging in number from two to 10 (where, yes, they establish a pecking order). The space per bird is slightly smaller than a sheet of letter paper.
The other 5% of farmed birds are cage-free. They mill in a big henhouse or, in the case of "free range" hens, roam outside in a field or yard.
The measure, which would not take effect until 2015, would have no effect on eggs imported into California for sale or use. Those could still be the product of caged hens.
