Support animal welfare ballot measure

I usually don’t write letters to newspapers, but the issue I want to talk about is too important for me not to take action.
There is likely going to be a measure on next year’s ballot in Massachusetts to ban the confinement of calves, pigs and hens in cages so small they hardly have any room to move, a common practice in the meat and egg industries. I am one of the hundreds of volunteers gathering signatures during every free moment I have to make sure that the Massachusetts voters will have the chance to express their opinion.

Polling has shown that the people of our state overwhelming support this measure, but unfortunately agribusiness lobbyists are trying to undercut that support. They are trying to push a misleading bill called H. 713 through the Massachusetts Legislature that’s designed to look like an animal protection measure, when in reality it’s the opposite.

If passed, this bill will create a “Livestock Care and Standards Board” that would compromise proposals that actually protect farm animals, like the ballot measure. So I urge Massachusetts legislators to reject H. 713 and that is why I am writing to you.

MONICA NATALE, Marshfield