Nation's Largest Veal Producer Ends Use of Crates |
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December 24, 2008
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©Elmari Briedenhann/Stock.xchng |
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Calves who are not confined in veal crates suffer less. |
In January 2007, Strauss Veal, the nation's largest veal producer, announced that within "two to three years," it would completely phase out its use of tiny crates to confine calves raised for veal.
And in December 2008, about two years later, the company's conversion is finished.
Strauss no longer uses crates or tethers to confine or restrain calves, instead keeping some in indoor group housing systems and others in free-range systems. Unlike those confined in veal crates, group-housed and free-range calves can at least walk and engage in more normal social behaviors.
Strauss' original announcement came just weeks after Arizona's 2006 vote banning veal crates and gestation crates for breeding pigs.
In a written statement, co-president and CEO Randy Strauss said veal crates are "inhumane and archaic" and "do nothing more than subject a calf to stress, fear, physical harm and pain."
Hot on the Heels of Prop 2
The company's completion of its phase-out arrived with this past November's landslide victory of California's Proposition 2.
Passed with a 63.5 percent vote, Prop 2 bans veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages in the country's top agricultural state, and further establishes in policy the principle that farm animals deserve protection from extreme confinement that prevents basic movement.
A Step in the Right Direction
Eliminating veal crates in the United States is a good step that will reduce the suffering of hundreds of thousands of animals.
While they will still be raised and killed for food, they will at least be able to turn around, walk and socialize with other calves—all behaviors that crates prevent.
Time to Ban the Veal Crate
Given the increasing opposition veal crates, as well as the fact that states like California, Arizona and Colorado have passed laws prohibiting them, the time couldn't be better to ban this cruel and inhumane form of confinement across the nation at the state and federal levels.
Related Links
Think Outside the Crate Campaign
Strauss Veal and Marcho Farms Eliminating Confinement by Crate
About Cattle
An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Veal Industry
The Welfare of Intensively Confined Animals in Battery Cages, Gestation Crates, and Veal Crates
