For the very first time, the South Korean government is considering phasing out bear farming.

As a WSPA supporter, you have the unique opportunity to help end this cruel practice. With our member society, Green Korea United (GKU), WSPA is participating in discussions with the South Korean government about permanently ending this cruelty. Please help us convince them to phase out bear farming and end the lifetime of suffering endured by these bears.

Right now more than 1,400 bears suffer on bear farms in South Korea. These bears are confined to cramped, barren cages until the age of 10, when they are then slaughtered for their bile, which is then used in Traditional Asian Medicine. This industry is still legal under South Korean law.

Bear farming is cruel. The captive conditions greatly restrict the bears’ movements and have a terrible impact on their wellbeing. WSPA has witnessed bears rocking and pacing in their small cages, and seen the severe wounds, sores and stress caused by confining them.

Bear farming is unnecessary. Academics, experts and Traditional Asian Medicine advocates in South Korea agree that there are many readily available herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile. Even bear farmers in South Korea acknowledge that their farms are losing money and they are prepared to consider a phase out.

The South Korean government is willing to find a way to end this suffering. Government officials have been in discussions with WSPA and GKU about ending bear farming. This September, a bill to phase out bear farming will be proposed to the Korean parliament for the government to deliberate.

Please sign this petition to Ambassador Han Duk-soo at the Embassy of South Korea in the United States TODAY and demonstrate the strength of international support for phasing out bear farming in South Korea.

CA AB 1437—Humanely Produced Eggs/Food Safety Assemblymember Jared Huffman

Sponsor:

ASPCA Position:  Support

Action Needed:  Email and call Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to request that he sign this important humane legislation into law.

In 2008, California citizens overwhelmingly voted in favor of Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, which outlawed “battery cages” and mandated that California’s egg-laying hens be housed with enough room to stand up, turn around and spread their wings.

Encouraging further animal-welfare and food-safety reform in the spirit of Prop 2, Assembly Bill 1437 would require that all whole eggs sold in California come from farms that meet this same standard. Like Prop 2, this new law would go into effect in 2015. The bill has already passed both houses of the California Legislature by large margins with bipartisan support.

Governor Schwarzenegger must sign AB 1437 into law by mid-July. 

The World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Salmonella Risk Assessment agree that the use of battery cages to produce eggs results in an increase in human health risk. Egg-laying hens subjected to stress are more likely to have higher levels of pathogens in their intestines. These conditions increase the likelihood that consumers will be exposed to higher levels of food-borne pathogens, including salmonella.

What You Can Do

Please use the email form provided to contact Governor Schwarzenegger and request that he sign this important consumer protection and animal welfare bill into state law. Don’t forget to personalize your message in the box provided so it stands out!

You can help even further by calling the Governor’s Office today at (916) 445-2841 and expressing your support for AB 1437. Be sure to tell the person with whom you speak that you are a California resident and that the Governor’s approval of AB 1437 is important to you and your family.

Thank you for your help, California.

UPDATE – July 6, 2010

Great news! I received confirmation tonight that Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger has signed A.B. 1437 into law.

The new law requires that shelled (whole) eggs sold in California
comply with the modest but important food safety and animal welfare
standards of Proposition 2. Passed in a 2008 landslide, Prop 2 phases
out production of eggs from hens crammed into cages.

I am so grateful to our California animal advocates. Thank you
for your many calls and emails to your state legislators and the governor,
and for spreading the word to your friends, family, and social
networks. Please read my latest blog on this exciting news:
http://action.humanesociety.org/site/R?i=cMsxZ6Ks0uPFpI21oNY4kw..

And thank you again for all you do for animals.

Call for Better Laws to Protect Farm Animals in Ohio

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — May 28, 2010 — As the nation struggles to comprehend what some animal experts are calling the most egregious case of animal cruelty ever documented, local authorities in Union County, Ohio are working to track down the animals shown in the undercover video being beaten, stabbed, punched and kicked inside Conklin Dairy Farm and bring them to safety at the New York Shelter of Farm Sanctuary. Yesterday, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization contacted the Union County Humane Society and local authorities, who are investigating this case, to offer rehabilitative care and lifelong refuge for any of the abused cows and calves in need as a result of the ongoing investigation. The Union County Humane Society has accepted Farm Sanctuary’s offer to help, should they confiscate any animals exhibiting signs of abuse, and both organizations are calling for better laws to protect farm animals in Ohio.

“We are so thankful that the Union County Humane Society has welcomed our offer to help,” said Susie Coston, national shelter director of Farm Sanctuary. “Ohio is known as ‘the heart of it all,’ and judging from the countless phone calls we are receiving from grief stricken citizens all across the country pleading for the safe rescue and refuge of these innocent animals, I can say with certainty that hearts are broken.”

According to Steffen Baldwin, the executive director of the Union County Humane Society, current state laws limit what can be done. Baldwin confirmed that the Union County Humane Society obtained a search warrant on Wednesday and humane agents entered the premises accompanied by the Union County Sheriffs Department, Union County Health Department, and a veterinarian from OSU that specializes in large animal care. At that time they found that all living animals at the facility had no visible signs of abuse. Without any visible signs of abuse and with the main perpetrator arrested, the Union County Humane Society lacked the physical evidence to seize the animals on the spot. However, this farm sells animals every week, and according to Baldwin, two agents from the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Enforcement Division have been added to assist in the investigation. Baldwin confirmed that state inspectors arrived at the farm on Thursday and cited it for not properly disposing of dead animals. A department spokeswoman stated that Conklin didn’t bury dead cows deep enough on the property. Additionally, the Union County Humane Society plans to track down animals recently sold from the facility to see if they show signs of abuse.

“We are grateful to Farm Sanctuary for reaching out and offering to provide protection for the cows and calves who suffered this egregious abuse,” said Baldwin. “Unfortunately, despite the horrific acts of torture documented in the video, and due to Ohio’s anemic animal cruelty laws, we simply do not have enough evidence at this time to meet the public’s overwhelming demand for the animals to be immediately seized and the facility shut down. This is an ongoing investigation and we are doing everything in our power to gather the necessary evidence to bring the victims of this atrocious abuse to refuge, where they can live out the rest of their days free from fear and pain.”

Local law enforcement agents are working to prosecute Billy Joe Gregg, the Conklin Dairy Farm worker accused of abusing calves and cows and most prominently shown in the video. Gregg has been arrested on 12 counts of animal cruelty, each second degree misdemeanor count carrying a possible sentence of 90 days in jail, and he is being held on $100,000 bond. Other arrests are pending further investigation.

Ohio law does not currently allow felony charges on farm animal abuse. On Thursday, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to approve House Bill 55, which would increase animal cruelty laws from a second degree misdemeanor to a first degree misdemeanor and mandated psychological exam, mental health treatment, and suspension of the ability to care for any animals, as well as more. Baldwin stated, “This law is a good start, but Ohio is still one of only 10 states that does not allow animal cruelty to be punished at the felony level. Until Ohio joins the other 40 states in the Union to properly protect those creatures who cannot speak for themselves or protect themselves we will continue to voice our displeasure at the lax laws in a state that prides itself on agriculture and livestock.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, called the Conklin Dairy Farm cruelty case “an eye-opener to anyone still unsure of what all the fuss is about concerning the treatment of farm animals in Ohio,” a reference to the campaign currently underway in the state to place a measure on the ballot to enact modest reforms and protect farm animals.

If you would like to speak with Gene Baur, president and co-founder or Susie Coston, national shelter director of Farm Sanctuary, a leading supporter of Ohioans For Humane Farms, please contact Meredith Turner at 646-369-6212 or mturner@farmsanctuary.org.

Photos of Farm Sanctuary’s shelters available upon request.

I’ve written before about the phony Center for Consumer Freedom
(CCF).

In its early years, CCF made money as a front group for Big Tobacco,
the alcohol industry, and other corporations working against public
health. In recent years, CCF has expanded its business model to
represent factory farmers, seal clubbers, cockfighters, and puppy
millers.

The Humane Society of the United States is now CCF’s number one
target. A couple weeks ago, CCF assailed our humanitarian relief
mission in Haiti, despite the remarkable work of our people on the
ground. Now, these animal cruelty apologists say they will step up
their attacks on us this week.

Will you make a special gift today and show CCF that those who care
about animals won’t back down?

The shills at CCF have one thing right: The HSUS is indeed the
largest, toughest, and most effective animal protection organization,
and we have the power, like no other group does, to effect major
changes for animals. Just listen to how our opponents talk about us:

“HSUS is clearly the nine-million-pound gorilla. They are
powerful, sophisticated and rich and they are good at what they do.
They are good at building the agenda, good at framing issues, they
know how to talk about issues, which is why they are effective.” – Wes Jamison, Meatingplace.com

“Fifteen years ago we were confronted by about 150 animal rights
organizations, subject to infighting and competition. Today, the
movement is defined by the Humane Society of the U.S.” – Steve
Kopperud, Cattle Network

“With the passage of California’s Proposition 2, more
people have come to realize the evolving threat of the power,
influence, and growing wealth of the Humane Society of the United
States (HSUS). Ballot initiatives and legislation similar to Prop. 2
will soon be introduced in more states. HSUS’s massive budget,
unwarranted positive public reputation, and deep-pocketed Hollywood
friends will only become a greater threat to industry in a
post-Proposition 2 business environment. It is crucial that a key
broad cross-section of agriculture leaders start managing this
nationwide threat now, before it is too late or too expensive to match
HSUS dollar for dollar.” – Rick Berman, CCF

If you don’t recognize the name of Rick Berman, let me provide a
proper introduction. He’s the type of individual — I know
you’ve heard of them before — who will literally do anything
for money. Back in the days when the tobacco lobby was still denying
that smoking caused lung cancer, men like Rick Berman attacked doctors
and other anti-smoking advocates who had the courage to speak the
truth. For his ultimately unsuccessful efforts, Rick Berman grabbed a
first fistful of cash (about $600,000 for starting the precursor to
CCF), and learned he could build a business by attacking
“do-gooders” and acting as hit man.

Right now, Berman is making the circuit of businesses and
organizations that profit from the status quo in the treatment of
animals, promising them they can dry up public support for our work
and pledging to step up assaults against The HSUS beginning this
week.

He will not slow us down. But here is something he will do. Beginning
now and for the first time in his public life, Rick Berman is going to
start helping animals. We’re going to see to it — you and I.

In response to CCF’s new mudslinging campaign, I’m asking
you to join with me, in raising $200,000 — $100,000 to help feed and
care for animals at the network of five animal care centers The HSUS
owns and operates, and $100,000 to add to our campaign to take on
factory farming.

Please make a special gift today to support our
animal care work and our campaigns against factory farms:

Here’s why I’ve chosen these two programs. We provide
permanent homes to 1,572 animals and treat another 14,000-plus injured
animals each year — the largest such sanctuary system in the United
States (and that’s just one small part of our direct-care
portfolio). Yet, Berman and company say we don’t do enough
hands-on care, and I want to underscore how painfully wrong he is by
allowing him to help us pay for the feeding and vet care of these
creatures for just a few days.

And second, we want to raise additional funds to fight factory farming
because it’s that type of work (whether passing
California’s successful Proposition 2 or shutting down
slaughterhouses violating the law with our undercover investigations)
that CCF and its corporate backers really want us to stop.

They’d love it if we spent all of our money on direct animal
care, and never addressed the causes of large-scale, institutionalized
cruelty and how animals get into a crisis situation to begin with.

As a reminder, we’ve employed this “counterpunch”
strategy once before. When the extremist U.S. Sportsmen’s
Alliance (USSA) worked to nix a $5,000 corporate gift to The HSUS for
our emergency grants to help pets affected by the foreclosure crisis,
we asked you to show the USSA that its activism against The HSUS would
backfire. We tried to raise more than USSA’s campaign cost us –
and we’d apply half of the money for our pet foreclosure fund
and our other efforts to protect pets, and the other half for the
programs that drive the USSA crazy, such as our anti-bear baiting or
anti-canned or captive hunts campaigns. It worked. We raised $170,000,
and sent the group a message that whenever they attack, we’ll
engage in a form of political jujitsu and flip the fundraising
equation on them.

Today, in our new counterpunch campaign, I’ll start with a
personal donation of $1,000. I hope you’ll make a contribution
today and show Rick Berman and the shadowy corporate interests that
line his pockets that any time they attack The HSUS, our supporters
will rise to the occasion to make sure our critical work to protect
animals not only continues, but is enhanced:

When we hit our goal, I’ll notify you and explain how
we’ll spend the money. Also, as we allow from time to time, the
donor who raises the most in this campaign gets naming rights to one
of our animals at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch. The winner
can pick, of course. But it’s my fond hope to be greeted by a
wild ass (actually, a donkey, but allow me this embellishment this
time) named “Rick Berman” next time I visit the ranch. It
will be a reminder in the winter of 2010 of the good he finally did
for someone other than himself.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

Tell IHOP to move away from cruel battery cages!

Major restaurant chains are already beginning to switch their eggs to cage-free. But IHOP is refusing to take this modest step, instead exclusively using eggs from hens cruelly confined in barren battery cages so small they can barely move their entire lives. We need your help to move IHOP in the right direction.

And now, an undercover investigation has revealed shocking abuses at IHOP’s egg supplier. As you can see, the footage reveals filthy conditions, sick and injured hens, and birds forced to live in cages with the decomposing corpses of other birds.

TAKE ACTION
Tell IHOP to follow its competitors’ lead and start switching away from battery-cage eggs.

Call IHOP headquarters right now at 1-866-444-5144 and ask it to at least meet its competitors’ commitments regarding battery-cage eggs.

An HSUS investigation at a slaughter facility in Vermont shows stomach-turning cruelty to veal calves.

As you can see in this video, the plant’s co-owner and other workers abused animals too weak to stand in order to get them to their feet — including in front of a USDA inspector who watched but failed to stop the abuse. In one case, a partially decapitated calf appeared to be still conscious. Another scene shows a calf who appears to be conscious while skinned alive. Watch the video. (WARNING: Graphic Images. Video will not play automatically.)

The people responsible for this sickening abuse must be held accountable. But we also must examine the broader agricultural policies and enforcement problems that lead to the mistreatment of young calves, many of whom are too weak to stand and walk to their own slaughter. For example, a regulatory loophole that allows downed veal calves to go to slaughter provides a financial incentive for producers to abuse these infant animals.

TAKE ACTION
Please ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take prompt action to prevent this kind of abuse from ever happening again.

Click here to automatically send a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack about the inhumane treatment of calves at slaughter plants.

With your help, the USDA will take action on its policies and procedures to give these helpless animals better protection against abuse.

Thank you for all you do for animals.

Sincerely,

Mike Markarian
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
The Humane Society of the United States

P.S. Please share this message with your friends and family, and spread the word on your social networks:

  Share on Facebook   Share on Twitter

By Casey

No sunny days to sweep the clouds away for these hens

Times are tough for the egg industry. The Food and Drug Administration is implementing costly regulations in an effort to keep consumers from getting sick. U.S. per capita consumption has been declining since 2005. More and more states are considering legislation to ban cruel battery cages in the wake of a landmark ballot initiative last year in California. And, worst of all, animal advocates keep exposing them for their undeniably cruel treatment of animals. It’s hard to say what Americans find more disgusting, the mutilation of day-old chicks recently exposed in the media or leaving dead hens to rot inside their filthy cages with surviving cagemates. 

Since the egg industry can’t stop abusing animals, its only alternative is to launch a new marketing campaign aimed at giving it a more warm and fuzzy image. You’ve heard of greenwashing? Well, meet warm-fuzzy-washing. Earlier this month, the American Egg Board (AEB) launched its “Good Egg Project,” which invites people to take a pledge to “Eat good. Do good everyday.” For every person that takes this nebulous pledge, the AEB will donate one egg to food pantries, up to a million eggs. Of course, the egg industry extorts more than 90 billion eggs from miserable caged hens every year. If you put those eggs in cartons laid end to end, they would circle the Earth’s equator 57 times! In contrast one million eggs in cartons laid end to end wouldn’t even get you from Brooklyn to Yonkers.

But the warm-fuzzy-washing doesn’t stop there. To make things even more repugnant, they are partnering up with the producers of “Sesame Street,” helping to underwrite the show’s 40th season in exchange for photo ops with Cookie Monster and, undoubtedly, plenty of pro-egg messages that will be spoon-fed to millions of hapless youngsters. With McDonald’s already in the show’s stable of corporate sponsors, I guess it must have seemed like a good fit. Of course, “Sesame Street” wouldn’t dare tell kids the truth about eggs or the tortured lives of farm animals. Everyone knows that honesty is the best policy, except when talking to children, in which case you should just keep your mouth shut and take that big fat corporate check to the bank.

What’s an animal activist to do? Here are some suggestions:

• Tell the folks at “Sesame Street” what you think of their new sponsor.
• Give children in your life a real lesson in compassion by reading to them from an animal friendly book, like Ruby Roth’s That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals. We know reading to kids does far more for their development (and yours) than plopping them down in front of a television anyway.
• If you’re an educator, consider adding our Cultivating Compassion series to your curriculum.
• Join our Advocacy Campaign Team as we fight to ban battery cages and spread the vegan message.
• Learn about the joys of egg-free cookery during the Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo), also known as October.

Of the 10 billion land animals killed for food each year in this country, more than nine billon of them are birds. What’s worse is that these birds also have no leg to stand on, as  they are not protected by the federal Animal Welfare Act or the Humane Slaughter Act, and the sparse state cruelty laws pertaining to birds that do exist are rarely enforced.  Thanksgiving is an excellent time to educate others about the horrors of turkey production. Not only can this make a difference for turkeys – 46 million of whom are killed each Thanksgiving – but this type of advocacy is also an effective  tool for keeping your sanity and surviving the holidays as a vegan! (Read our Holiday Survival Guide here.) 

The millions of turkeys who are exploited for food are depending on us to speak up for them. When it comes to animal advocacy, everyone can get involved using  their own  special skill sets and interests, so read on for some ways to get started:  

Raise awareness in your community by leafleting with our Thanksgiving’s Toll on Turkeys flier. You can also ask friendly establishments if they will display Adopt-A-Turkey brochures. Leafleting is a simple way to educate thousands of people on a variety of issues – from the cruelties of turkey production to the reasons to start a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Fliers Are for the Birds

• Order your free Adopt-A-Turkey Project literature here.
• Don’t forget to drop off literature at your doctor’s office, dentist’s office, veterinarian, auto repair shop, or anyone with a waiting room. Many health food stores, cafes, restaurants, and book stores also have an area where you can leave literature. These are great places to leave Adopt-A-Turkey literature.
• Read on for more tips on establishment outreach.
• Leafleting is a numbers game. If you leaflet 100 people with compassionate messages, you will reach several who will learn about the cruelty involved in “food animal” production for the first time. The knowledge one leaflet can provide has the power to change a life forever.
• Read on for some more tips on leafleting.

Table for Turkeys in Your Community

Set up a turkey table at a well traveled location in your community. Encourage your neighbors to adopt a turkey and dine with compassion this holiday with our Adopt-A-Turkey and Compassionate Thanksgiving Recipes brochures. This is an effective way to teach people about farm animal abuse and what they can do to stop it. Most people simply don’t know how turkeys and other animals used for food production are treated. Recent polls have demonstrated that when people do learn how farm animals are raised, most are against it.

• Tabling is extra-fun and effective around the holidays! Check out our tips on tabling.
• Every person you reach and teach is one more person who can save hundreds of animals in his or her lifetime by making cruelty-free choices.
• Order your free tabling materials here.

Letters Needed in Support of a Compassionate Thanksgiving

Submit a letter to the editor about Thanksgiving’s toll on turkeys and encourage readers to adopt new traditions for the holiday. Use words of compassion to encourage a circle of thanks that extends out to our feathered friends.

• Writing a letter to the editor (LTE) is perfect for the armchair activist.
• Remember, any subject can be brought back to animal protection. You just need to find the right angle. Finding an angle for a letter around the holidays is easy! For example, if there is an article in your paper about “free-range” or “organic” turkeys then write an LTE to inform others about the Truth Behind Labels.
• The LTE section of your paper is the most read section, aside from the front page. Check out our tips on writing LTEs.
• For your LTE, please be sure to visit our Talking Points page.

Take to the Air(ways) for Turkeys with a Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Air a PSA on your local television station. Farm Sanctuary has two Tom-terrific Thanksgiving announcements: “Give a Turkey a Reason to be Thankful” with actress Persia White and “Save a Turkey” featuring actor Corey Feldman.

• PSAs are easier than you might think to get on the air! We have a thorough guide to airing a PSA for your reference.
• Take a look at and listen to our Thanksgiving PSAs!

A Turkey Will Thank YOU for Placing a Newspaper Ad

Sponsor a happy and healthy Thanksgiving advertisement in your local newspaper.

• Learn more about how to run Farm Sanctuary’s “Give a turkey something to be thankful for” ad in time for the holiday.

Share a Compassionate Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving’s focus on food provides many opportunities for farm animal advocates. Not only do you have a platform to talk about turkeys, you can also share terrific turkey-free meals with your family, friends and neighbors.

• Learn more about attending or hosting a dinner FOR the turkeys.

More Resources

• Join Farm Sanctuary’s Advocacy Campaign Team
  • Joining Farm Sanctuary’s Advocacy Campaign Team is a perfect way to stay on top of our national campaigns, local volunteer opportunities and inspiring activist stories. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Halloween or Earth Day, we often encourage holiday-specific activism, and we work alongside you to ensure that your efforts successful and fun. Find out more and sign up today.

• Take Advantage of Our Tools & Resources
  • We have a thorough and constantly-growing guide to community outreach. Check it out often! 

• Make Hay With Us!
  • Farm Sanctuary’s Advocacy Campaign Team  blog, “Making Hay,” is a go-to place for all things activism-related! So add it  to your own personal blogroll, and sign up for our RSS feed to automatically get our updates. (Note: You can – and should! – also sign up for our RSS feed for our action alerts!

If you need additional support for your turkey activism, or if you have any questions about how to get more involved, let us know!

Farm Sanctuary spoke up, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is listening. In 2007, we formally petitioned the USDA to consider the treatment and living conditions of farm animals when creating rules allowing producers to label food made from their flesh as “natural.” As we explained in our petition to the agency, the term “natural” should reflect what consumers understand to be “natural” conditions, and a nationwide survey reveals that 73 percent of consumers think it is inappropriate to label as “natural” meat from animals who are constantly kept indoors, confined in crowded cages, and forced to stand all day, every day on metal and concrete floors.

It took two years for the USDA to respond, but the agency has now officially acknowledged the petition and is requesting public comments on the issue of whether “natural” labeling standards should encompass the conditions under which animals are raised. But the USDA is only accepting these comments until November 13, so please take action today.

Using the link below, please take a moment now to submit comments to the USDA expressing your concern about this important issue. We have included some sample comments below, but remember to personalize them with your own words to make a stronger impact.

After you submit your comments, please send this link to all your friends, co-workers and family members, urging them to submit comments too. If we are to hold producers accountable for their marketing claims, it’s essential that the USDA hear from as many people who are concerned about this issue as possible. Don’t let the USDA condone animal cruelty in this way. Speak up today, and ask everyone you know to do the same!

Click here to submit your comments, using the sample comments below as a model. NOTE: The online form provided by the USDA has several information fields (text boxes) that you can fill in. However, the only required fields are “First Name,” “Last Name,” and the comment field iteslf. If you are unable to submit comments using the form, the Web page includes a link for “Alternate Ways to Comment” near the top of the page.

Sample Comments

I am writing to request that you explicitly address the treatment and living conditions of animals who are raised for food when determining whether producers can label a meat or poultry product as “natural.”

Although the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has traditionally viewed the claim “natural” as relating only to finished products regardless of how those products were made, this is inconsistent with the view held by the vast majority of consumers, who believe that labeling a meat or poultry product with the term “natural” indicates something significant about how the animals these products came from were raised. The results of a nationwide survey showing that 73 percent of consumers think it is inappropriate to label products from animals who are constantly kept indoors, confined in crowded cages, and forced to stand on metal and concrete floors as “natural” provide concrete evidence of this popular public attitude. Because of this widely-held view, failure to address the issues of animal treatment and living conditions is likely to result in unnecessary consumer confusion and deception that contradict the laws governing the USDA’s actions.

Accordingly, the agency should prohibit use of the term “natural” on any products derived from animals who were raised in conditions that prevented the expression of behaviors innate to the species, forced to consume diets inconsistent with the animals’ natural biological functions, given sub-therapeutic antibiotics, or given hormones to promote growth.

In addition, rather than relying on different standards (which only compound consumer confusion), FSIS should work with the Agricultural Marketing Service to develop a singular labeling claim – “natural” or “naturally raised” – that attends to the issues discussed above.