Michigan News
(2009-10-02)
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Pigs stick out their snouts through a fence at a farm
Michigan has more than 10 million laying hens, about 100,000 breeding pigs and is a top veal-producing state.
A measure expected to be signed by Governor Granholm will improve the conditions in which they live.
Gene Baur with Farm Sanctuary, an animal protection organization, says the law is good for humans too.
"When you confine animals so tightly, they have to be fed antibiotics to be kept alive and to be kept productive in those systems," Baur says. "And then you have the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and other pathogens which are emerging on today's industrialized farms. So being bad to animals is also bad for us."
The measure requires that caged animals must be able to stand up, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs.
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