A new animal welfare law goes into effect in California today that targets for pigs, cows and chickens for increased space requirements.

A new animal welfare law going into effect in California Jan. 1 that mandates space requirements for pigs, cows and chickens has some livestock farmers on edge.

Proposition 12 prohibits sales in California of pork, veal and eggs from livestock whose confinement doesn’t meet certain minimum space rules. Those rules mandate hog pens to be large enough for an animal to turn around.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, ruling 5-4 that “while the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list.”

It is unfortunate that the U.S. Supreme Court did rule against pork producers. Hopefully, new lawsuits can be filed raising new issues can be filed against Proposition 12 in the very near future and will be successful. In the meantime, the true purpose of this new law is outlined by the Illinois Pork Producers Association, as reported by The Center Square, could cost $3,500 per sow to upgrade the infrastructure and result in increased animal conflicts and injuries which, in turn, affect animal health outcomes ruining meat quality and livestock farmer profitability.

The sole purpose of so-called animal welfare laws, like Proposition 12, are to eventually bankrupt livestock farmers and deprive consumers of meat products they can consume. So-called animal welfare laws are tools used by animal rights groups to attack the human food supply in hopes of pushing more people down the line to embrace vegan diets or to eventually starve due to a lack of food choices.