The organization Mercy for Animals (MFA) has released undercover footage showing the brutal mistreatment of pigs and piglets at Tosh Farms in Kentucky.  But attempts to exploit the abuses shown in the video in order to promote a controversial ballot measure in California is raising strong objections from long-time animal advocates.  

"We applaud MFA for documenting animal cruelty, but we strongly condemn its utterly false claims that California's Proposition 12 would prevent the brutality highlighted in its video. The fact is, Proposition 12 allows those abuses to continue," states Bradley Miller, National Director of the Humane Farming Association.

Miller also serves as spokesperson for Californians Against Cruelty, Cages, and Fraud, the ballot measure committee leading the No on Proposition 12 campaign.

"The abuses shown in the video (the killing, beating, throwing, castration, and overall brutal handling of pigs and piglets) have absolutely nothing to do with Proposition 12," said Miller.

Proposition 12's proponents have also misled at least one media outlet to falsely state that all of the piglets at Tosh Farms who "make it to adulthood" are locked up in gestation crates. That is also patently false.  

"Of the twelve initiatives appearing on the November ballot, Proposition 12 is the dirtiest of the dozen," states Miller. "The extent to which proponents are willing to go to mislead California voters continues to be deeply troubling.  Nevertheless, we're confident that California voters won't be fooled and that this fraudulent initiative will be decisively rejected.”

Some comments from Animal Agriculture Alliance spokesperson Hannah Thompson: “ They are just people who are interested in advocating for animal rights and encouraging people not to eat meat using a variety of different tactics. That again that appear to come from physicians or doctors but it really another extremist group whose is using any tactics it can to undermine the reputation of animal agriculture and make people feel bad about eating meat.” Again the staggering irony in all of this is that the people taking these videos surreptitiously standby and watch the abuse so that they can capture headlines.”