Our friend and farm broadcast colleague Gary Truitt reports on movements by the most dangerous organization in the United States to invade the Midwest. After tackling less agriculturally intensive states over the past four or five years with ballot initiatives seeking to destroy animal agriculture, the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) took a shot at a major farm state last fall, and won.

Voters in California, not necessarily bastions of good judgment to begin with, failed to turn back Proposition 2 on the November ballot. Disguised as a well-intentioned attempt to give cuddly critters a little more breathing room, Prop 2 was actually and deliberately worded to render it impossible for poultry producers to raise birds in cages, for dairymen to raise veal calves in traditional stalls, or for hog produces to farrow sows in gestation stalls. This means when the initiative takes full effect, those farmers will in all likelihood be forced out of business. To raise chickens in the manner forced by the new law would require an inordinate amount of space, and as most any animal scientist will tell you, in a way that is contrary to the birds’ natural flocking mentality.

The same can be said of the hog producer, who has long used the gestation stall as the most humane method to rear piglets. The gestating sow is well known for her disregard for the newborn piglets, and more experience farmers previously used to farrowing without the aid of the more modern stalls will readily tell you how many piglets were lost to those sows natural tendencies.

The HSUS, of course, doesn’t actually give a fig about the best practices employed by the animal agriculture industry. Driven by a vegan agenda, these extremists are concerned only with eliminating completely the commercial production of meat, milk, and eggs. With this end-goal in mind, the Prop 2 debacle makes perfect sense.

As Truitt reports in his HAT Chat (Hoosier Ag Today is Gary’s Indiana-based radio network) blog, HSUS appears to be settling into the state immediately to our West. Rumors are circulating among our sources that indicate HSUS may also be attempting to settle in for a ballot battle in the Buckeye State as well. Given their success in California, no doubt this well-funded organization of radical activists is feeling its oats and itching for another victory.

Hopefully Indiana and Ohio farmers are ready for the challenge and girding their loins for the battle. God help us if we’re not ready – the enemy certainly is.