Massachusetts’ highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, gave the okay to place on this November’s ballot an initiative backed by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) that would ban the use in the state of certain farm animal housing and prohibit the sale in the state of meat and eggs from confined animals.
A farmer and a homeless and hunger advocate challenged the ballot initiative, which would outlaw the use of gestation pens for pregnant sows, pens for veal calves and so-called battery cages for laying hens. It also would prohibit products from animals housed in such ways anywhere in the country from being sold in Massachusetts.By banning interstate sales of meat and eggs from confined animals, the initiative likely would drive up the price of those products, which likely would reduce their consumption.