When Californians vote for Prop 12, they will be doing so with a sense of satisfaction that they’re helping animals. After all, Prop 12 updates Prop 2 by being more strict about how much space is given to house animals, and leaves room to ban the sale of any products involving animal confinement. Activists exposed the fact that the farming industry was still confining animals in awful conditions, due to loopholes in Prop 2. Prop 12 tries to fix these, but does it do enough?

Because it is an update on Prop 2, Prop 12 does not have to reveal its own issues. It only needs to step in as the “solution.” Who and what are its inconsistencies protecting? The answer is the incredibly lucrative California dairy industry. Prop 2 restricts the confinement of veal calves, but the dairy industry does not have to protect calves when they are not intended for veal. Prop 12 still doesn’t hold the dairy industry accountable, and it still confines animals rather than allowing them to roam free on grass or have social contact. The dairy industry can’t function without constantly lactating calves. “Leftover” animals may be literally thrown on the scrapheap (activists share horrific videos of mass graves at these farms). Unsuitable female calves or male “non-veal” calves may be confined and treated inhumanely without any prohibition. A large proportion of calves die of diarrhea from living in filthy conditions, and they are kept isolated from social and maternal contact. Whether you choose to vote for Prop 12 or not, please write to your local representative about this huge gap in the legislation that protects industry and sentences calves to a cruel fate. The inconvenient truth behind these two pieces of legislation isn’t that they aren’t perfect – it’s that the dairy industry is cruel.

Read more on this issue: https://theintercept.com/2018/10/08/california-prop-12-animal-welfare-dairy-calves/

The calf had been tossed into a pile of dead animals. Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) activists found her in this mass grave-site, plucked her out and carried her away. Before they could get her to a safe place, they were arrested and charged with felony “grand theft” for stealing “property” from the dairy farm.

Direct Action Everywhere activists have been instrumental in showing the world that cruelty is the inevitable byproduct of dairy farming with their photo and video recordings of awful conditions. Male calves are taken from their mothers, denied vital nutrients and kept in tiny excrement-filled pens, because they have no other use to the dairy industry besides meat. A great number of them die of diarrhea due to living in filthy conditions without adequate nourishment. Direct Action Everywhere activists showed that dairy farms were still flouting laws passed to protect male veal cows. The activists pointed out that these laws are not effective and they don’t protect all calves, like the female baby calf the activists named Angel. Industry profits override care, and what is called care is just the minimum standard the dairy industry can get away with. The activists have been arrested for their so-called “crimes.” In the meantime, the baby cow called Angel was left to her fate, to grow sicker and die. Please sign the petition to highlight this terrible injustice: https://www.facebook.com/directactioneverywhere/videos/506030299913168?source=global-email&campaign=dff-angel

An in-depth report from The Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/08/california-prop-12-animal-welfare-dairy-calves/