What kind of loser would fight to keep pigs in cages? We’ll show you four.

What compels a person to spend his career fighting to make animals suffer? Was he bullied as a child? Unloved by his parents? Was he that troubled kid torturing bugs at recess? A genuine psychopath –– or just greedy?

We may never know what got them here, but we do know that something deep and dark must motivate the four losers who advocate for animals to endure unnecessary pain and suffering.

We’re talking about the men working to overturn America’s strongest animal welfare law: Proposition 12. Passed by California voters in 2018, Prop 12 bans some of the cruelest forms of confinement in the food industry. It establishes minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, mother pigs, and veal calves. It also bans the sale of meat and eggs that come from facilities that violate these standards.

About two thirds of Californians voted for the measure, agreeing with the extremely radical idea that an animal smarter than a dog should be able to turn around. The law has withstood three lawsuits from the meat and egg industries and multiple attempts to delay its implementation. This week, the Supreme Court once again rejected the pork industry’s effort to have the law overturned.

But Prop 12 isn’t yet safe, and the Supreme Court decision may motivate the law’s opponents to fight it even harder. GOP legislators are working to overturn Prop 12 with a new federal bill, the Food Security & Farm Protection Act. While the measure explicitly targets Prop 12, according to Sentient, “experts say that it could also potentially threaten over 1,000 public health, safety, and welfare laws across the country.” Nevermind public health, and nevermind the fact that many producers have already adapted to Prop 12, and that the law may even benefit smaller producers.

Who would fight so hard to keep animals in cages? Meet Jack, GT, Kent, and Duane.

Loser #1: Jack Hubbard

Jack Hubbard is the executive director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW) a meat industry lobbying group leading a campaign to overturn Prop 12.

CEW is not an animal welfare group, though it masquerades as one. It is a front group created by Berman and Company, the PR firm (of which Hubbard is a partner) led by Rick Berman, a merchant of doubt infamous for defending Big Oil, Big Ag, and the alcohol industry.

Berman and Hubbard have been fighting Prop 12 for over a decade. In 2011, the Center for Consumer Freedom, another group in Berman’s shadowy web of front organizations, released a propaganda video called The War on Bacon. Over images of happy pigs in metal cages, the narrator argues not only that gestation crates are good for pigs but that vets support them. It fails to mention that nearly 400 vets told the Supreme Court these cages are inherently cruel.

In his latest stunt, Hubbard is fronting CEW’s so-called Food Price Fix campaign: a slick, misleading PR offensive that pretends to stand up for low-income families while actually spewing Big Meat’s misinformation. 

The campaign’s website is a case study in gaslighting. It blames price increases on Prop 12 while conveniently ignoring the hundreds of millions in fines Tyson, Smithfield, Cal-Maine, and other mega-producers have paid for colluding to drive up prices. But Hubbard is happy to help these companies abuse animals, exploit farmers, and crush consumers with high prices as long as he gets his own fat paycheck.

As quoted by Our Honor, Hubbard says he is “really concerned about animal rights groups trying to change [the] country’s food policy.” What he’s actually concerned about is protecting the corporate profits paying his salary.

Loser 2: Glenn “GT” Thompson

Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson is the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee and the leading force in Congress pushing to dismantle Prop 12.

As lead author of the 2024 Farm Bill, Thompson has insisted on including a so-called “fix” that would allow producers to sell animal products nationwide regardless of how the animals were raised. Though he frames this as a fight over interstate commerce, the language he’s pushing mirrors the goals of the pork industry’s most extreme factions. Thompson has echoed messaging from the National Pork Producers Council and the AVMA almost word for word.

But thousands of producers, veterinarians, and voters — including over 100 farmers from Thompson’s home state of Pennsylvania — have urged him not to gut state-level welfare standards. Companies like Clemens Food Group and Sauder’s Eggs, who have invested heavily in cage-free and crate-free systems, say the proposed rollback would pull the rug out from under farmers who adapted to rising consumer demand for more humane practices.

Loser 3: Dr. Kent McClure

Meet Dr. Kent McClure, Associate Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer at the American Veterinary Medical Association. He is one of the AVMA’s most visible political voices, using his role to advance the interests of Big Meat.

Many would assume a vet would act in the best interest of animals, but McClure does just the opposite. His actions are completely out of whack with the oath he took to “prevent animal suffering.” This isn’t all that surprising given this isn’t the first time AVMA has been on the wrong side of animal welfare issues.

In May 2024, McClure wrote to Congress opposing Prop 12, calling the law “arbitrary” and arguing it would interfere with veterinary judgment, echoing rhetoric long used by the agribusiness lobby.

The National Pork Producers Council embraced AVMA’s position and was able to use the organization’s supposed veterinary authority to bolster its own campaign.

Loser #4: Duane Stateler

Meet Duane Stateler, a pig farmer himself and the recently elected President of the National Pork Producers Council.

Since becoming NPPC president in March, Stateler has pushed Congress to block state-level standards entirely, regardless of public support. In Washington, he’s leading efforts to dismantle voter-approved laws not only in California and Massachusetts that protect farmed animals from extreme confinement.

One of his top goals as president, he says, is to show what “NPPC does for people on levels they don’t see.” So here it is: NPPC is working to strip basic animal protections and shield factory farms from accountability — exactly the kind of work that thrives in the dark.

It’s clear Stateler doesn’t represent every pork farmer, just the megacorporations at the top of the food chain. In an opinion piece in the Detroit News, a Michigan farmer shared, “Nullifying state laws would not only roll back progress on animal welfare, but it would also severely hurt rural economies and farmers who have made financial commitments to meet state standards.” Does Stateler care? Not a chance.