A California Educator Puts Farm Animals on the Ballot One Signature at a Time

	©The HSUS
	Jim Corriere walked for miles gathering signatures for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.

Since October 2007, 790,486 Californians have signed petitions in support of an anti-cruelty ballot initiative, and on Feb. 28, 2008, the group leading the effort submitted those signatures to county election offices. For a measure to qualify for California’s November 2008 ballot, 433,971 valid signatures are required.

Jim Corriere was one of nearly 4,000 volunteers across the state who collected the signatures. 

A clipboard-slinging Jim Corriere had an unprecedented showdown in the Mexican border town of Calexico, Calif.: After walking for more than four hours along its dusty streets, the crack signature-gatherer only turned up 20 residents who would speak out against farm animal cruelty—and who could speak English and could vote.

To the Imperial County, Calif. man, the trip was well worth it despite its low return. His attitude is born from four months spent combing the largely Hispanic and rural southeastern corner of California looking for voters who want to prevent the worst cruelty on the state's industrial factory farms.

So far, Corriere has personally solicited support from more than 700 people for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, a ballot initiative sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary and and other animal protection groups, family farmers, veterinarians and public health professionals. If made law, it would simply require that the nearly 20 million animals confined on California's industrial factory farms have enough space to stand up, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs. 

On factory farms across the nation, productive animals aren't rewarded with real estate: Caged hens shift their feet within a space far smaller than a sheet of letter-sized paper, sows spend four months of pregnancy holed up in narrow metal cages and calves spend their short lives boxed and chained inside cramped wooden crates.

To illustrate this issue, Corriere laminated a photograph of a confined calf and attached it to his clipboard. When he's out gathering signatures, he lifts the photograph above his head and walks in silence through the crowds.

"When I approach these people, I'm delicate with them. I'm selling something … I'm selling you a concept and the price of it is your signature. Along with that comes your support," Corriere, 45, said, explaining his volunteer work. He spends his work week teaching G.E.D. courses to inmates at Centinela State Prison, a maximum security institution in Imperial, Calif.

Though the 6 foot, 1 inch tall, 250 pound animal advocate doesn't profess his love for animals to his students, he spends virtually all of his spare time sharing his thoughts on animal welfare with strangers. His motivation, he said, is the love he's received from his 18-year-old cat, Catt.

"The one thing I've learned is when you become motivated, and an agent of change, you become emboldened and other people become less threatening," he said.

Corriere set weekly and monthly signature-gathering goals for himself. He already contributes a large portion of his income to a variety of animal welfare groups, including The HSUS, but wanted to do more, he said.

"I can't let any animal suffer on my behalf," he said.

Never missing an opportunity to get a signature, Corriere said he asked the woman who prepared his taxes to sign off on the initiative and has, of course, asked every gas station clerk and grocery store clerk he's encountered along the way. He's walked miles along roads, knocking door to door.

Only occasionally is he ever brushed off or confronted. When that happens, he simply moves on to the next person, the next opportunity.

"When I don't get enough signatures for the day, I feel bad. I beat myself up internally … They need help, they need to get out of these cages," he said. "If we don't do something about it, who will?"

Pepper Ballard is a public relations specialist at The Humane Society of the United States.

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