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This fall, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Animal Housing held a “First Draft Meeting” to launch the next revision cycle for NFPA 150, Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code—a model code that provides fire protection standards for a wide range of animal housing facilities, including commercial animal agriculture buildings.
In October, AWI assisted with a fly-in that brought over 200 farmers to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional offices in support of California’s Proposition 12, which sets minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and veal calves while also prohibiting the in-state sale of eggs, pork, and veal that do not meet those
In a major victory for farmed animal welfare, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held in early October that Massachusetts’s Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (aka “Question 3”) is constitutional and not preempted by federal law. The state law—enacted by ballot initiative in 2016 with the support of nearly 78 percent
As reported in the fall 2024 AWI Quarterly, AWI submitted comments to the Animal Welfare Committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) regarding its policy on pregnant sow housing. Dr. Gwendy Reyes-Illg, veterinary medicine consultant for AWI’s Farmed Animal Program, provided an extremely detailed, comprehensively researched rationale for why pregnant sows should be socially housed in appropriately designed
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of California in July, alleging that a combination of its “voter initiatives, legislative enactments, and regulations” have contributed to higher egg prices. In particular, the legal challenge singles out California’s Proposition 12 (passed by nearly 63 percent of the state’s voters in 2018), which prohibits
In May, Hickman’s Family Farms—a major US egg company—announced the loss of a staggering 95 percent of its chicken flock after highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) swept through several of its farms in Arizona. To prevent further disease spread, approximately 6 million birds were reportedly killed, the majority of whom were being raised within
In encouraging news, both Senate and House fiscal year 2026 Agriculture Appropriations bills winding their way through Congress contain provisions that continue to bar horse slaughter operations in the United States. The House and Senate Interior Appropriations bills also maintain long-standing protections against the slaughter and lethal control of wild horses—provisions absent from the administration’s