NJ.com, 28-Nov-14
By Claude Brodesser-Akner
Decrying what he called “partisan politicians” seeking “a political cudgel” with which to beat him, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation banning the use of pig gestation crates in New Jersey today.
In a statement released to the media, Christie urged legislators “to turn their attention to actual problems facing New Jersey” noting he rejected nearly identical legislation last year sponsored by the same legislators. At that time, both the N.J. State Board of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture found the bill to be unnecessary.
"I will rely on our in-state experts rather than the partisan politicians who sponsor this bill. These facts are no less true today," Christie said.
The Senate bill (S998) would have directed the State Board of Agriculture to adopt rules and regulations “prohibiting the confinement, in an enclosure, of any sow during gestation in a manner that prevents the sow from turning around freely, lying down, standing up, or fully extending the limbs of the animal.”
The bill, which Christie called “a solution in search of a problem,” gained national notoriety not so much for the effect it would have on New Jersey’s actual swine – there are only 9,000 in the state, according to USDA statistics – but on Christie’s political fortunes: Iowa is not only home to the first-in-the-nation political caucuses for the 2016 presidential election, but to 20 million pigs. Nearly one-third of the nation's hogs are raised in Iowa, where hog farming alone represents $7.5 billion in total economic activity for the state, according to the Iowa Pork Producers Association.
Still, the vetoed bill had attracted the attention of Hollywood celebrities and local residents alike. The Humane Society organized a campaign with letters from stars like Danny DeVito, Bob Barker and Bill Maher; Jon Stewart mocked Christie’s planned veto from his perch on “The Daily Show. Two New Jersey teenage sisters delivered over 125,000 signatures collected from state residents urging Christie to sign the bill into law.
This is the second time Christie has vetoed a measure meant to ban the practice of keeping gestating pigs in close-confining crates.
Last year, Christie vetoed a bill (S1921) that would have made the “cruel confinement” of a gestating sow an animal cruelty offense.
The bill Christie vetoed today was slightly different, but intended to achieve the same end.
Both bills passed overwhelmingly. But when state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), its sponsor, attempted to override Christie’s veto last year, Lesniak pulled it at the last minute when Republicans who initially voted for it refused to break ranks with the governor.
This time, Lesniak said, he will wage a much harder campaign to override Christie's veto.
“It will be a campaign the likes of which has never been seen before. Supporters of this bill got 135,000 signatures asking the governor to sign it. From across the nation, but mostly from New Jersey. That army of supporters will be mobilized,” Lesniak said.
The vetoed bill cannot become law unless the Legislature overrides the veto by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members of each house: 27 votes in the Senate; 54 votes in the General Assembly.
Lesniak said he was not shocked by the veto, but he was “hoping for a surprise.”
“It reeks of Christie’s priorities,” said State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D – Union), adding, “And his priorities are the preservation of his national political ambitions.”
In a statement released to the media, Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, called Christie "an outlier on the issue of extreme confinement of farm animals," adding that his veto left New Jersey lagging behind the practices of the nation's largest purveyors of pork.
"McDonald’s, Safeway, Costco, and others have decided to cleanse their supply chains of pork from operations that don’t let the animals move, and even major producers like Smithfield Foods are making the switch," said Pacelle, adding, "This veto shows cynical political calculation from the governor and an obvious capitulation to special interests, rather than leadership or humanity.”
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