Proposition 2 Farm Animals

In the run-up to a ballot initiative that would regulate the treatment of farm animals, an animal rights group has released footage showing egg-laying hens crammed into filthy cages, while, nearby, discarded birds are left to die in piles of corpses. The footage, the latest by animal rights activists working undercover at factory farms, is intended to boost support for Proposition 2.

The odd duck on the Nov. 4 California ballot is the measure calling for chicken rights. The right for egg-laying hens "to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely" in their little cages, to quote from Proposition 2. The initiative, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, also applies to pregnant pigs and caged calves being raised for veal. But the largest pork producer in California already has said it will stop using small crates.

Californians voted resoundingly to free about 20 million egg-laying hens of tiny cages. But in passing Proposition 2, the farm animal welfare measure, did the state's consumers yoke themselves to higher egg prices? For months farmers had contended that the measure would drive up egg prices or even put them out of business because of the high cost of retrofitting their farms with cage-free facilities.