WASHINGTON, June 17, 2013 – New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie today vetoed a bill that would have banned the use of gestation cages
in the state’s livestock production. The gestation crate legislation had
previously passed through New Jersey’s state House of Representatives and
Senate.
Christie deferred to the “the State’s farming” experts – its
Board of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture – to decide “the proper
balancing of humane treatment of gestation pigs with the interests of farmers
whose livelihood depends on their ability to properly manage their livestock.”
The bill would have made it an animal cruelty offense to confine
a gestating sow “in a manner that prevents the animal from being able to turn
around freely, lie down, stand up, or fully extend its limbs,” with a few
exception.
The legislation had been promoted by a number of animal
rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
The National Pork Producers Council issued a statement praising
Christie for his decision. “This
is a great example of a governor standing up to powerful lobbying groups on
behalf of small, independent farmers,” said President-elect Dr. Howard
Hill, a pork producer from Cambridge, Iowa.
Gestation
crates are banned or in the process of being phased out in Florida, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island. Two
recent efforts to pass anti-gestation crate bills in New York and Connecticut,
however, failed in their states’ legislatures.
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