Published 8/12/2019

2019 has been a fantastic year of progress for farmed animals so far—and it keeps getting better!  

On Friday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed SB 1019 into law, which bans the use of cruel cage confinement for egg-laying hens, as well as the sale of eggs and egg products from out-of-state productions from don’t meet the state’s new standards. 

The new law makes it illegal to house birds in facilities other than cage-free systems, requires crucial enrichments like perches, nest boxes, and scratch areas that allow for expression of natural behaviors, and mandates on-farm inspections to ensure industry compliance. These protections are set to go into effect on January 1, 2024. 

With more than 2.5 million egg-laying hens living in the state, and millions more feeding into Oregon’s egg supply, the breadth of these new protections is truly astounding. 

Oregon lawmakers cited a variety of reasons for this critical legislative update, including concerns about animal welfare, food safety, and the economic risk of failing to bring the industry in line with consumer expectations—all of which Compassion USA emphasizes to food companies in our corporate engagement work.  

This meaningful legislation is hot on the heels of a near-identical law passed in Washington earlier this year, as well as the historically strong Prop 12 in California last November. With the Oregon law now on the books, the entire West coast has adamantly signaled their rejection of cruel confinement in our food system.  

And that’s something to celebrate! 

Compassion USA would like to thank our advocacy allies at The Humane Society of the United States, whose diligent work made this legislative victory possible. 

It’s clear we’re seeing impressive progress for egg-laying hens at state level, but how about the corporate level? Stay tuned for the 2019 EggTrack report, an annual roundup of food business leaders and laggards in the fight for a cage-free future, coming this September!