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Media
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 15, 2003
City
of Berkeley Joins Nationwide Effort to
Protect Farm Animals
On
Tuesday, January 14th, Berkeley became
the first city in California, and the
seventh in the United States to enact
a proclamation formally recognizing that
farm animals have feelings and deserve
to be protected from abuse. It is part
of a growing nationwide effort to prevent
the inhumane treatment of animals on industrialized
factory farms.
Berkeley’s
proclamation, which passed unanimously,
states: “WHEREAS, animals exploited
by agribusiness are living beings - capable
of awareness, feeling and suffering; and
WHEREAS, human beings have an ethical
obligation to refrain from causing pain
and suffering to other living beings;
and WHEREAS, agribusiness commonly subjects
cattle, pigs, chickens, and other farm
animals to overcrowding, intensive confinement,
and other conditions which cause pain
and suffering; NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved
that the City of Berkeley recognizes farm
animals as living beings who deserve to
be treated with respect and protected
from inhumane treatment.”
The
Berkeley measure is part of the Sentient
Beings Campaign, <http://www.sentientbeings.org>
which is chaired by Mary Tyler Moore and
coordinated by Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s
leading farm animal protection organization.
Berkeley City Council member Dona Spring
stated, “I’m so pleased that
the Berkeley City Council joins other
cities in our country proclaiming farm
animals as living, feeling beings capable
of pain and suffering. Hopefully, with
increased awareness, the public will demand
legislation that will reform the horribly
cruel and unsanitary treatment of animals
raised in factory farms in this country.”
Farm animals are routinely chained or
confined in cages so tightly that they
cannot walk, turn around, or even lie
down comfortably, and they live this way
for years. Their basic needs are completely
ignored, and they suffer both physical
and psychological disorders.
Factory
farm conditions are repugnant to the vast
majority of consumers, and reforms are
now underway. Fast food giants, including
McDonald’s and Burger King, have
urged their suppliers to treat farm animals
better. Last November, for the first time
in U.S. history, a cruel farming practice
was outlawed when over 2.5 million Floridians
for an initiative to ban gestation crates,
two foot wide metal enclosures where breeding
pigs are confined for most of their lives.
Legislation to outlaw veal crates, another
cruel farming device, is now moving forward
in New Jersey and will be heard in committee
later this week.
For
more information, please see www.sentientbeings.org
or
www.farmsanctuary.org.
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