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Friend,
In a historic move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued their final Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards rule, a landmark federal regulation that strengthens and clarifies animal welfare standards. This win is in no small part due to your action—you asked the USDA to adopt these humane measures... and they listened.
Among these standards is the first ever federal regulation banning gestation crates—metal crates that prohibit mother pigs from turning around for virtually their entire lives—in organic pork production. It also provides for minimum indoor and outdoor space requirements for organically raised birds. These measures respect a bedrock principle in animal welfare, that animals deserve and require adequate space to move and engage in natural behavior, and that such space is vital for animal wellbeing and health.
The rule also bans inherently cruel practices including tail docking and face branding, de-beaking (or beak trimming) after 10 days of age and induced molting (a process using stress and starvation to shed feathers) for chickens, and mulesing of sheep, a painful process that involves slicing the animals’ flesh.
The finalization of this rule is a triumph in the fight for better treatment for farm animals and millions of animals will be better off because of it.
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