When we worked to pass Proposition 2 in California last November—in spite of a nearly $10 million opposition campaign by agribusiness—we knew that it could reduce the suffering of up to 20 million farm animals living in intensive confinement conditions on California factory farms. But beyond critical changes in policy, we wanted to send a signal to political and agricultural leaders that the public is concerned about the well-being of all animals, including those raised for food. Things had to change with this industry, and it is wrong to subject animals to lifelong confinement.

Photo credit SXC/Rob Waterhouse

We followed up on Prop 2 by working with California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez to ban the cruel and inhumane practice of tail docking—the partial amputation of up to two-thirds of a dairy cow’s tail, a procedure typically performed without anesthetic. With the tails docked on perhaps as many as 15 percent of the 1.8 million cows raised for milk on 2,200 farms in California, that’s tens of thousands of cows who suffer from this crude procedure.

Last week, the California Assembly overwhelmingly passed the legislation, following the lead of the Senate. The bill, S.B. 135, is soon to go to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for signing. During California’s acrimonious and very difficult budget negotiations some weeks ago, Gov. Schwarzenegger, who opposed Prop 2, chided the legislature for working on a bill related to cow’s tails. But animal cruelty is always a serious matter, and we let the governor know we were upset with his mocking of animal cruelty issues. We assume his concern was only about the timing of the legislation, and not about the worthiness of this important animal welfare bill.

S.B. 135 attracted overwhelming bipartisan support in passing both chambers by wide margins. Even the California Farm Bureau and the California Cattlemen’s Association favored the legislation, recognizing that certain practices are out of bounds and unacceptable. Passage of S.B. 135 won’t cost the state a dime.

We’ll be urging Gov. Schwarzenegger to do right by animals. To ban this practice in the nation’s top dairy-producing state may be the front edge of a national effort to outlaw this practice. If one-quarter or more of the nation’s 9 million dairy cows are subjected to tail docking, then that’s a lot of suffering we can eliminate if we can get the dairy industry to cease this pointless practice.

If you live in California, please help us make the case—email or call (916-445-2841) the governor today.