From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

As Mark Bittman rightly notes, California’s new farm animal welfare law presages what is coming for all farm animal industries nationally (“Hens, Unbound,” column, Jan. 1).

The tiny cages and crates that confine about 90 percent of laying hens and more than 80 percent of gestating sows are both physically and mentally tormenting for the animals involved.

Physically, the muscles and the bones of the animals atrophy from lack of use. Mentally, they go insane from boredom and stress, just as our dogs or cats would if they were kept in tiny crates or carriers for their entire lives.

There is no difference between cruelty to a pig or a dog or a hen or a cat, and so the sooner we relegate these awful devices to the dustbin of history, the better.

BRUCE G. FRIEDRICH
Washington, Jan. 1, 2015

The writer is director of advocacy and policy for Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal protection group.