Trapped in a cage barely larger than her body, she can’t turn around. She can’t extend her legs. She’ll never feel the breeze or see the sun. All she can do is gnaw on the bars in front of her—the only distraction from her own despair.

This is the life of a mother pig on a factory farm.

These cages have a name: “gestation crates.” In confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), they’re one of the most common ways to confine a mother pig throughout her pregnancy. Trapped in rows and rows of these dystopian cages, animals are treated as nothing more than breeding machines. But they’re living beings—and they feel every second of the fear, pain, and suffering they’re forced to experience.

In 2018, California voters passed the world’s strongest animal welfare law to date, Proposition 12—which banned gestation crates and other forms of extreme confinement. The law requires that baby cows, egg-laying hens, and mother pigs “must be able to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.” (Basically, the bare minimum.)

But the pig industry, with its allies in Congress, is determined to put animals back in cages. Andwecan’tletthathappen.

With the Farm Bill up for renewal, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is encouraging lawmakers to use the bill to overturn Proposition 12—along with the few other laws that stand between animals and cruel cages. Rather than listening to the will of voters, who overwhelmingly support laws to protect animals, Secretary Vilsack is pushing the interests of a small contingent of the pork industry.

His stance doesn’t just threaten animals. Many farmers have already done the work to comply with Proposition 12, providing more humane conditions for their animals.

And people across the country agree that farmed animals deserve better. In a 2022 market trends survey, North American consumers listed animal cruelty as their top concern, even above other environmental and social issues. Overturning Prop 12 would mean overturning a law voted in by the people—fair and square.

The pig industry’s greed is threatening animals, farmers, and democracy itself. Will you sign our petition calling on the White House to take a strong stance in support of Proposition 12—and make cruel cages a thing of the past?