Voters in Arizona and Michigan gave a voice to animals this year by speaking out on ballot initiatives in landslide votes that will protect farm animals and mourning doves.
Arizona: Proposition 204 Passes Overwhelmingly
Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed a historic initiative to improve the lives of farm animals—the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act.
The passage of this proposition by 62 percent of the vote, makes Arizona the first state in the nation to prohibit the confinement of calves in veal crates and the second state to prohibit the confinement of breeding pigs in gestation crates. These two factory farming practices are infamous for their inherent cruelty and are both already banned throughout the European Union.
"Arizona voters stood up to factory farming lobby groups and affirmed that farm animals should have basic protections such as being able to turn around and extend their limbs," said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. "The overwhelming passage of Proposition 204 will not only help thousands of animals in Arizona, but will also send a message to factory farming operations across the country that they must end the most abusive practices."
Enthusiastic Support
Thanks to the inspiring efforts of tireless Arizona volunteers, 11 out of 15 Arizona counties supported the measure, recognizing that it is cruel and inhumane to confine pigs and calves in crates so small they can't even turn around and extend their limbs. The measure phases out the two confinement practices, with an effective date of Dec. 31, 2012.
The proposition attracted an avalanche of support across the state. Many newspapers, including the Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, East Valley Tribune, Tucson Citizen and Tucson Weekly, ran editorials supporting Prop 204. And endorsements flooded in from organizations such as the Arizona Humane Society, The HSUS, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, the Sierra Club, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. Individual endorsers included more than 100 Arizona veterinarians, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, radio legend Paul Harvey and Bill Niman, CEO of a network of 500 free-range pork producers.
Michigan: Proposal 3 Shot Down
In a victory for the people and wildlife of Michigan, all 83 counties in the Wolverine State rejected a proposal that would have opened the first target shooting season on the mourning dove—the state's official bird of peace—which has been a protected species since 1905.
Sixty-nine percent of Michigan voters said "no" to shooting doves, with the campaign receiving more votes than any statewide candidate. The "no" votes exceeded the "yes" votes by more than 1.3 million. The crushing win at the polls culminated a two-year grassroots campaign by The Committee to Keep Doves Protected, a coalition of Michigan humane, conservation, farming and faith-based groups, including The HSUS, which represents more than 300,000 Michigan members.
The campaign became necessary when well-funded, out-of-state hunting groups like the National Rifle Association (headquartered in Virginia), the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (Ohio) and the Safari Club International (Arizona) aimed a lobbying blitz at the state legislature. These outside special interests were seeking to overturn a 100-year-long Michigan tradition of protecting doves. In 1998, the people of Michigan reaffirmed the special place these beautiful and gentle birds hold in their esteem when the legislature honored the mourning dove as "Michigan's state bird of peace."
Lobbying for Cruelty and Mobilizing for Doves
But in 2004, under heavy pressure from the lobbyists, the legislature passed—and Governor Jennifer Granholm signed, after first promising to veto it—a bill reclassifying mourning doves from song birds to game birds. In the fall of 2004, an estimated 3,000 hunters killed more than 28,000 doves.
In response, The Committee to Keep Doves Protected launched a signature drive to return mourning doves to the protected status. Volunteers collected 275,000 signatures, 73 percent more than the 159,000 needed to place a statewide measure on the ballot to give Michigan voters the final say on the issue. Their efforts bore fruit as the people of Michigan decisively and emphatically told the politicians, the lobbyists, and the out-of-state special interests to keep their hands off of Michigan's mourning doves.
The HSUS worked with local organizations like the Michigan Humane Society, Michigan Audubon Society and the Michigan State Grange to carry this campaign to victory.
"The question of whether to hunt doves in Michigan, which has been a policy debate for years, has been settled once and for all," said Mike Markarian, executive vice president of the HSUS. "It was a long, tough campaign, but the faith and determination of Michigan volunteers and advocates carried the day. In the final analysis, though, it is the people of Michigan who really deserve the credit. They saw through the propaganda from the supporters of the dove hunt, and they spoke up on Election Day for wildlife and for the century-long Michigan tradition of caring for doves."
More Work Ahead
Neither animals nor people fared as well in Florida, where powerful special interests succeeded in pushing through a ballot measure that will make it more difficult for citizens to win passage of popular reforms. Amendment 3 was placed on the ballot by legislators at the request of Tallahassee lobbyists, who used the 2002 "pregnant pig" amendment as an example of why the ballot initiative process supposedly needed to be reined in.
Ironically, while Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed a proposition to protect breeding pigs on corporate factory farms, Florida special interests used that same issue to take power away from the state's voters. Amendment 3 will now require that future ballot measures obtain a supermajority—60 percent or more, rather than a simple 50 percent majority—of votes to pass.
