Governor Christie stands up to HSUS I Powerful animal rights lobbying groups have legislation vetoed

Earlier this morning, Governor Christie stood up to HSUS and the powerful animal rights lobbying groups and vetoed legislation banning the use of individual maternity pens in New Jersey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to contact his office over the last few months to help him understand the importance of this issue on a national level. Without a doubt, your communications were instrumental in helping him stand with agriculture.


Thank you again,

Bryan Humphreys

National Pork Producers Council

(515) 451-0484

Producers Praise Christie For Supporting Farmers

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 27, 2013 – America’s hog farmers and the National Pork Producers Council today thanked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for vetoing legislation that would have banned the use of individual maternity pens for pregnant sows. The legislation was pushed by animal-rights groups despite the fact that few of New Jersey’s small number of hog farmers use such housing.

“This is a great example of a governor standing up to powerful lobbying groups on behalf of small, independent farmers,” said NPPC President-elect Dr. Howard Hill, a pork producer from Cambridge, Iowa. “America’s family hog farmers thank Gov. Christie for rejecting this bad legislation.”

The legislation was championed by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other radical animal-rights activists even though it would have prevented farmers from caring for their animals in a way approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. Those organizations long have recognize individual maternity pens as appropriate for providing for the well-being of sows during pregnancy.

“HSUS continues to drive this unreasonable legislation in states with little pork production in an attempt to push a national agenda, but states are starting to push back,” Hill said.

In rejecting the legislation, Christie said: “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 best rests with the State’s farming experts – the State Board [of Agriculture] and the Department [of Agriculture].”

The New Jersey agriculture departments in 2004 adopted “Humane Standards” for livestock, and the state Supreme Court in 2008 upheld most of the standards, including a direct challenge of the regulations governing the treatment of gestating pigs.

The defeat in New Jersey was the latest in a series of them for HSUS, which over the past 10 years has spent millions of dollars in states around the country to advance its radical agenda.

Very few states have enacted bans through ballot initiatives or through the legislative process because of the negative impacts such prohibitions would have had on local pork producers. Most recently, the legislatures in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont chose not to pass measures banning individual maternity pens.

# # #

NPPC is the global voice for the U.S. pork industry, protecting the livelihoods of America’s 67,000 pork producers, who abide by ethical principles in caring for their animals, in protecting the environment and public health and in providing safe, wholesome, nutritious pork products to consumers worldwide. For more information, visit www.nppc.org.