To the Editor:
Imagine an animal being caged in a manner so that they were restricted and unable to move or even turn around. With such little room they couldn’t even stretch their limbs. This is how some farms treat pigs, hens, and calves. Hens for example are placed in sit in cages “no bigger than an iPad” according to Aruae Komyati at the Daily Collegian. Hens may experience fractured bones, and metabolic diseases due to cage confinement. Many often die because they get caught in cage wires and can’t reach their food. These confined spaces present intense immobilization which results in prevention of natural muscle movement.
Voting no on Question 3 (would prohibit certain methods of farm animal containment), not only allows inhumane acts to continue but affects the safety of the food we eat. When animals are crowded into these small cages together, it promotes spread of disease. For example, if you shoved five people into a bathroom for a few hours and someone has the flu, chances are everyone is going to get sick as well. Studies show that animals that are confined into cages together have a higher rates of salmonella, the number one cause of food poisoning related deaths in the US. Not only that but animals left in small cages are also left sitting in their own waste, while also being drugged with growth hormones and antibiotics, this also can taint the food we eat.
Voting yes to Question 3 on November 8th would make a minimum size requirement on the cages animals are placed in, and would prevent the sales of caged animals that do not follow the requirements in Massachusetts. This law would take a step forward to ending animal cruelty and would also make the food we eat safer.
Brianna Fontes
Junior, Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School
