When Fox and Hound Legislate the Hen House: A Nixon-in-China Moment for National Egg-Laying Standards?

It is no secret that the vast majority of American eat animals and animal products. Because of the popularity of animals and animal products as food, “foxes”—agricultural producers—have long struggled against “hounds”—animal welfare advocacy groups—to influence the popular American appetite. This essay focuses upon one such fox, the United Egg Producers (UEP), the nation’s largest egg farmer organization, and one such hound, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation’s largest animal advocacy organization. JSUS had already outmaneuvered UEP by successfully swaying popular opinion in California, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, an Washington to pass state law referenda or legislation outlawing the sale of battery-cage eggs, eggs laid by chickens confined within cases of a certain size.