People were too busy to stop and talk as they scurried into the Roger Lewis Athletic Center in Boston on Saturday. They were on their way to the Annual Veg Food Fest, and they didn’t want to be bothered by the young college girl standing outside the front doors with a petition clipboard and animal cruelty brochures.
“Some people are signing, a lot of people walk by without making eye contact,” said Hannah Worden. “But there are a lot of people leafleting here so I understand that it could be annoying.”
Worden is a soft-spoken, fair-skinned college junior at Northeastern University. She decided to give up her Saturday in exchange for a cold fall morning outside, raising awareness for an issue that’s important to her.
“I’m trying to get signatures for this petition to end the cruel confinement of farm animals,” she said. Worden is part of the Student Animal Advocates Club at her school. “We need 60,000 signatures and if we get that, they will send a bill.”
Worden is referring to a Massachusetts ballot initiative called the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. The ballot initiative campaign was announced by Humane Society’s CEO, Wayne Pacelle, in August 2015. It will appear on the November 2016 ballot if enough signatures are gathered from qualified Massachusetts’s voters.
The bill will require that veal calves, pregnant pigs, and laying hens have enough room to turn around, stand up, lie down, and freely extend their limbs.
“Station crates, which are crates that are two foot by seven foot, that they keep pregnant pigs in so they can’t move around for three months, would be banned,” said Worden.
All whole shell eggs, and uncooked veal and pork sold in Massachusetts would have to meet the anti-confinement standards set fourth in this ballot initiative. Regardless of where a company is based, if they want to sell these products in the state of Massachusetts, they would have to comply by 2022.
Critics of the ballot initiative argue that this would mean higher food prices
Worden eats a plant-based diet, that means zero animal products. She laughed when asked what was the defining moment that made her adopt a vegan lifestyle.
“My friend who is a vegetarian said that she was doing a vegan week and I should try it with her. I had no intention of doing it full time, I was just going to do it for a week,” she said. “But at the end of the week I just felt amazing.”
Worden says she thought it would be hard because she used to love cheese and milk.
“After a week of doing it I had so much more energy and I felt healthier,” she said. “I wouldn’t go back even if I wanted to.”
Catherine Trudell 