Americans could barely believe their eyes when shown the sickening mistreatment of downer cows at a California slaughter plant earlier this year. An investigator for The Humane Society of the United States went undercover there and documented downed cows being brutalized in order to get them into the kill box. Government inspectors and plant management either missed the abuse or allowed it to persist. After the broadcast of the graphic video, the federal government was finally pressed into stopping the sale of meat from sick and crippled animals to consumers. This investigation shows us we cannot always wait for the government and the factory farming industry to protect animals from abuse or to guard us from food safety threats. That’s precisely why Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act — which phases out the cramming of veal calves, breeding pigs and laying hens into small cages and crates — is so important and timely. The measure seeks to afford animals raised for food the opportunity to turn around and fully stretch their limbs — a matter of basic decency and an upholding of the principle that all animals deserve humane treatment, including those raised for food.   It is inhumane to confine animals throughout their lives in cages or crates so small that they cannot turn around or stretch their limbs. On factory farms, veal calves are chained by the neck and confined in tiny stalls; pigs are kept in metal cages called gestation crates that are barely larger than their bodies; and several hens are crammed into a battery cage with each bird having less floor space than a letter-sized sheet of paper. Jamming eight birds into a barren wire cage for their entire lives probably feels for them like it would for eight people if they were indefinitely crammed together in an elevator. The greatest nation in the world, with the most innovative farmers, can do better than this. Family farmers know food quality is enhanced by more humane farming methods, and they know there is a balance between animal care and economics. And major retailers like Wolfgang Puck, and even Burger King and Safeway, are increasingly demanding more humanely-produced food and phasing in the sale of products from farmers who do not confine animals in tiny cages.  The prestigious Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Production — an independent panel chaired by former Kansas Governor John Carlin and that included former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and leading veterinarians and farmers — recently issued a report concluding that Prop 2 includes “the types of modest animal welfare public policy improvements that the Commissioners recommend implementing.” In its report, the Commission said, “Practices that restrict natural motion, such as sow gestation crates, induce high levels of stress in the animals and threaten their health, which in turn may threaten human health.”  Science has confirmed what common sense already knew: cramming animals into filthy, unsafe cages leads to higher rates of diseases such as Salmonella that can affect people. It’s on the basis of human and animal health concerns that the California Veterinary Medical Association, the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of America and the Union of Concerned Scientists have endorsed Prop 2. Arizona and Florida voters approved ballot initiatives to phase out these types of crates. And lawmakers in Colorado and Oregon have done the same. The European Union has already passed legislation against veal crates, barren battery cages and gestation crates, and these regulations now apply to all of its 27 nations. These modest reforms won’t be costly to implement. The egg industry’s own California-based economist reports that producing cage-free eggs costs less than one penny per egg more. This ballot measure gives farmers until 2015 — a full six years — to phase in more humane production practices. We have long known that factory farms produce enormous volumes of waste that pollute the air and water. It is indisputable that they cause immense suffering to animals, and the evidence is overwhelming that they jeopardize food safety and public health. Let them know that California can do better by voting “yes” on Prop 2. — Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, was in La Jolla last week for a benefit for Prop 2; YESonProp2.com.