Prop 2 Passes!

You have spoken loud and clear - Yes on Proposition 2! In a landslide victory for the animals, you resoundingly passed Proposition 2, giving more room to the 19 million hens, calves and pigs protected by this measure.

To everyone who spent their mornings, evenings and weekends gathering signatures to get this on the ballot - thank you.

To all the volunteers who leafleted, phone-banked, told their friends, families and coworkers to vote yes - thank you.

To the people who got endorsements and donated their money to getting ads aired - thank you.

To the dedicated, tireless campaign team - a huge thank you for all your hard work.

To you - the voter - thank you for giving a voice to the voiceless.

And to the Humane Society of the United States - thank you for making this happen.

This isn't ending the cruelty inherent to farming, only not eating animals does that. But it is allowing animals enough room to engage in the most basic of behaviors - turning around, stretching their limbs, lying down and standing up. Let's continue the fight for those who cannot fight for themselves and continue promoting veganism, compassion and better treatment of farmed animals.

-Marji Beach, Education Coordinator

Proposition 2 Update

USDA & The American Egg Board have been ordered by a federal judge to stop violating a federal law that bans expenditure of federal funds on influencing government policy. Read more

The American Egg Board, a government supervised industry group, received approval from the USDA to use $3 million in federal check-off funds for ads that promote eggs using a No on Prop 2 spokesman as the speaker. Federal law prohibits the use of check-off program funds in a way

that may influence government policy.

San Francisco Chronicle: USDA ordered to quit buying anti-Prop 2 ads

Yes! On Prop 2: Federal Court Blocks Multi-million Dollar “Awful Egg Bailout”

September 23, 2008

The United States Department of Justice has subpoenaed records from leading opponents of Proposition 2 - the United Egg Producers (UEP), Golden Oval Eggs, LLC, Michael Foods, Inc. and MoArk LLC- as part of a criminal probe into illegal price-fixing. Read more

USDA sued over fund misappropriation

The USDA is being sued for illegally allowing the American Egg Board to use $3 million to fight Proposition 2, a California ballot measure that would require pregnant pigs, egg-laying hens, and veal calves have enough room to turn around and stretch their limbs.

The San Francisco Chronicle accepts letters, please submit yours in support of Proposition 2 and in opposition to the outrageous behavior of the USDA in permitting an industry group to use federal funds in swaying governmental policy.

Submit letters to: letters@sfchronicle.com - keep letters under 200 words, include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

The L.A. Times ran a small story about this issue in one of its blogs. The blog accepts comments.