baby steps...

[vegetus]

So, Prop 2 was passed in California. I'm not one who gets too involved in US politics but I was very, very pleased to hear about this passing.

It's baby steps forward, but they are still forward.

Comments

[transcendancing]

Excellent news!!

[vegetus]

If only Australia had something similar!

[bella_demarco]

yes on prop 8 as well though, so cali is definitely taking tiny tiny steps.

[vegetus]

Sorry but the banning of veal crates, battery hen cages and sow stalls is a very different issue than gay marriage.

Whilst it is a disappointment that prop 8 got up, at least those who are directly affected by it can continue to fight for their own rights. The animals cannot speak for themselves and I would liken not being able to move or stretch my limbs for my entire life in a whole different level to not being able to get married. I suggest you stand on an A4 piece of paper for 10 minutes and not move off it. Then multiply that for your entire life. Then you might realise the utter hell that these feeling beings have to go through so people can eat them and their "products". Also it means that California will have better laws on animal welfare in farms than Australia.

[bella_demarco]

yes, it's different, i didn't say it was the same. there were a whole bunch of other amendments and measures that were passed/rejected in various states, and that was the only one that i can remember off the top of my head for CA.

i'm also not ignorant about where my food comes from, but thanks for the reminder.

[vegetus]

To give you some idea of what happens in Australia and what you pay for and personally support every time you eat a ham sandwich or a cake with egg in it...

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/lucy_speaks/
http://www.freebetty.com/cage_eggs.php
http://savebabe.com/

[zebrallama]

Exactly.

As a lot of people have said on teh webs, anyone who thinks Prop 2 will give us humane farms is nuts. But once they'd put it up in such a weak form it's much better to have it passed than rejected.

So :-)

[vegetus]

As another friend commented "millions of animals will now be living in horrible cruelty rather than utter hell". This may or may not have lead to a declaration of vegan activist love towards them

[zebrallama]

Totally +1.

As for rights vs. welfare (to get in before you!), I like to think of animal welfare the way everyone thinks about human welfare, i.e. perfectly compatible with rights. There are SOME people who want welfare instead of rights, but I hope not many.

Then there's the argument about whether we should campaign for abolition of whole industries. A lot of people just recently seem to have started calling this an issue of welfare vs. rights. But I think that's a pretty bad misuse of terminology. It is an important question in its own right, of course. (I say yes we should, BTW.)