Something there is that doesn't like a wall

My 2-year old knows better. She's not enthusiastic about it, but she begrudgingly will accept the responsibility of putting her stuffed animals and dolls back into her toy chest at night. She knows mama and papa don't like a mess. Conveniently enough, she's learning not to like messes either. It bothers her, and she's not sure why. We'd like to think she's developing taste, a conscience, an aesthetic rule, a pitch, an angle... or maybe it's just instinct.

Something there is that doesn't like a... mess.

Which brings me to Proposition 2 (The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act) on the California ballot this November. I've heard some other bloggers (Charles Hartley on KPBS.org) ask the obvious question, "Why?" Why?!? Why should we prevent farm animal cruelty? Hmmmm.... let's see.

Something there is that doesn't like... cruelty, perhaps?

When you have to ask the question, you've already gone the way of Dante in the middle of a wood: you have lost your way.

My two year-old knows better. She knows not to step on a Rolly Polly bug when we got out walking the cul-de-sac. She knows she shouldn't hit our dog just because. She knows it's not nice to torture butterflies. She would also know, if we cared to show her, that it's not nice to tether young calves by the neck to a chain and stick them in a cage just big enough to stand up or lie down... in their own feces... their entire life. She'd know, if we cared to show her, that it's really not nice at all to keep a pregnant sow in a crate not much bigger than the veal calf's confinement for months on end, until she finally gives birth, and then wean the little piglets from her after only three weeks, only to start the process over again, month after month after month. She would clearly know, if we dared show her, that it's not nice to stuff a bunch of hens into a cage not even big enough for a single hen, then expect them to get along for months on end while they're forced to lay eggs and an unnaturally high rate and can never extend their wings. Once. Their entire lives.

Even if this Proposition passes, it doesn't mean the end of all farm animal cruelty. But it does mean the end of the worst of it. And a little less cruel is a whole lot better.

Even my 2-year old knows that. And if she could, she would vote "Yes" on Prop. 2.