Martha Stewart is the latest celebrity to stand up for New Jersey’s pigs.
In a letter delivered yesterday to the office of Governor Chris Christie, Stewart urges the governor to sign a bipartisan state animal welfare bill that will ban keeping mother pigs in crates so small they can’t even turn around.
Stewart’s letter comes on the heels of fellow New Jersey native Bill Maher's op-ed in the New York Times, in which he accused the governor, who’s mulling a 2016 presidential campaign, of pandering to voters in Iowa, which holds the nation’s first presidential caucus.
“There must be more to it,” Maher wrote, referring to Christie’s veto of a similar bill last year. “Could it be that a possible presidential candidate is aware that Iowa is the No. 1 pig state in the country, and that Republican primary voters there are strongly anti-regulation?”
In her letter, Stewart writes, “All animals need to turn around; they were designed that way. But pigs, especially, are interesting individuals with unique personalities and complex behavior and cognition. It is no more acceptable to cram pigs into tiny crates than it would be to do the same thing to dogs.”
The bill just overwhelmingly passed the Senate and Assembly, and will follow similar bills in nine states, including California, Arizona, Florida, and others. It has the support of The Humane Society of the United States, ASPCA, Farm Sanctuary, and 93 percent of New Jersey voters — including 94 percent of Democrats and 92 percent of Republicans.
Stewart and Maher have both spoken out publically to end farm animal cruelty in the past, and were recruited to help by Farm Sanctuary, America’s leading farm animal protection and rescue organization.
To learn more about Farm Sanctuary, visit farmsanctuary.org.
Farm Sanctuary operates three shelters in New York and California that provide lifelong care for nearly 1,000 rescued farm animals, works to change laws to decrease abuse of farm animals, and promotes compassionate vegan living.
