The Morristown proclamation states, "WHEREAS, animals raised on farms are sentient beings and are capable of feeling and suffering; and WHEREAS, human beings have an ethical responsibility to refrain from causing unnecessary pain and suffering to other sentient beings; and WHEREAS animals kept on modern farms may be subjected to conditions which jeopardize their welfare; NOW THEREFORE, I, John J. Delaney, Jr., Mayor of the Town of Morristown, do hereby proclaim that the Town of Morristown recognizes that farm animals are sentient beings who deserve to be treated with respect and protected from inhumane treatment."

Not only is Morristown the first town in the nation to recognize farm animals as sentient beings. New Jersey is the first state to require the development of standards for the humane treatment of farm animals, and it is in a unique position to play a leading role toward changing America’s shameful neglect of farm animal welfare.

In January 1996, the New Jersey legislature charged the state Department of Agriculture with developing "standards for the humane raising, keeping, care and treatment, marketing, and sale of domestic livestock" within six months. Six years later, the standards have not been drafted. But the state still has the remarkable opportunity to improve the lives of millions of animals currently being subjected to cruel and inhumane living conditions in New Jersey.

Though farm animals are living beings with as much capacity to feel pain and suffering as cats, dogs, and other animals, they are excluded from animal cruelty laws, and they are commonly treated as mere tools of production by agribusiness. Hundreds of millions of farm animals in the U.S. are confined in cages that are so cramped that they cannot walk, turn around, or even lie down comfortably. Such conditions are so cruel they have been outlawed in Europe, and Farm Sanctuary is urging the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to draft humane standards that outlaw these conditions in New Jersey.

For more information about Farm Sanctuary, please visit www.farmsanctuary.org. For more information on the organization’s Sentient Beings campaign, which is supported by hundreds of other organizations with combined memberships in the millions, please visit www.sentientbeings.org. For more information on the New Jersey campaign for humane standards, please visit www.njfarms.org.