Last July, as it has for more than 150 years, the California State Fair was held in Sacramento at the Cal Expo fairgrounds. As in previous years, one of the exhibits at the fair was a live birthing exhibit in which a sow gives birth to a litter of piglets during the fair.
For the 17 days of the fair, the sow is confined in a “farrowing crate” – a metal cage with bars so close to the animal’s body that she cannot turn around or even lie down comfortably.
After she gives birth in front of fairgoers, the sow is separated from her piglets by the metal bars. She sleeps on one side and they on the other, with space only to nurse. They sleep on a metal floor with no hay or bedding.
The almost three-week confinement of pregnant sows in farrowing crates at the California State Fair violates the California Penal Code’s prohibitions on confining an animal without adequate exercise and on causing an animal needless suffering.
What does the farrowing crate exhibit have to do with UCLA? The exhibit is sponsored and put on by the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and directly supported by the UC Board of Regents.
The California State Fair exhibit stands in stark contrast to similar pig exhibits at other fairs. For example, at the Alameda County Fair, mother pigs and their new piglets rest and play in a large open pen, with hay for bedding and mud to romp in. Fairgoers can observe the pigs’ natural behaviors in this setting.
I first learned of the exhibit when I was a litigation clerk with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. ALDF is a national nonprofit that works to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals using the legal system. As a UCLA law student, I felt particularly compelled to help ALDF fight a cruel and unnecessary exhibit sponsored by a sister UC school.
Last summer, as the California State Fair approached, ALDF and concerned fairgoers again took note of the planned farrowing crate exhibit. We reached out to Cal Exposition & State Fair, the state agency in charge of the fair, to try to persuade them to move away from the confinement model and adopt an exhibit similar to the one at the Alameda fair. As in previous years, they didn’t listen.
ALDF then filed a complaint against Cal Exposition & State Fair and the UC Regents on the grounds that our state tax dollars, which support both entities, are funding the confinement of sows at the fair in violation of the California Penal Code sections 597 and 597t, which respectively prohibit “subject(ing) any animal to needless suffering” and mandate that any “animal confined in an enclosed area” be provided an “adequate exercise area.” The money and resources spent on the exhibit constitute an illegal expenditure of state funds that, on behalf of taxpayers, we sued to stop.
In response to the suit, the UC Regents dug in its heels, fighting ALDF in court for the right to continue hosting the farrowing crate exhibit at the State Fair. ALDF recently appealed an unfavorable decision in the trial court.
I have to admit to being somewhat baffled by the UC’s involvement. I don’t know why the UC Davis veterinary school would sponsor and promote the educational value of this exhibit when the trend in animal agriculture now sweeping the nation is a move away from intensive confinement systems and toward more humane methods. Nor can I imagine why the UC Regents would be fighting to maintain an exhibit that constitutes animal cruelty under state law.
As a member of the UC community, former ALDF litigation clerk, California taxpayer and student who looks forward to using her law degree to improve the treatment of animals, I am deeply disappointed that the UC Regents has continued to support this exhibit.
I don’t believe an animal confinement exhibit such as this lives up to the UC ideals I know and value. Nor, in my mind, does it honor our university’s reputation as a compassionate community that strives for innovation and the highest standards of learning.
If you agree that this exhibit has no place in the UC community, please let the UC Regents know by emailing regentsoffice@ucop.edu or writing to:
Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents
1111 Franklin St., 12th floor
Oakland, CA 94607
Fax: (510) 987-9224
Kelsey Rinehart is a student at the UCLA School of Law.