[opinion from ASU Web Devil]

Voters can choose more ethical conditions on farms
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Unless you turned straight to today's opinion page, you probably noticed the story about a protest led by animal-rights activists opposing animal testing at a new laboratory (see today's front page).

If you were on campus in the spring of 2004, you also remember another time when animal-rights activists made the front page of The State Press.

Back then, it wasn't a group of picketers that started a campus-wide buzz about our furry or four-legged friends – it was the fact that the two protestors were a model who'd been featured in Playboy and a staff member for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA for short, who also happened to be a transsexual.

And they weren't just holding signs – they were decked out in bikinis and wrestling in a kiddy pool full of tofu, right by the Newman Center.

The event sparked an editorial, a few opinion pieces and plenty of letters to the editor.
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Locally, voters will have an opportunity to take a stand on the conditions allowed on veal and hog farms with Proposition 204.

The proposition mandates that farmers allow pigs and cattle enough room to lie down, turn around and fully extend their limbs.
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The fact that the proposition is polling so well, and that enough support was garnered to get it on the fall ballot as a citizen's initiative, and with hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on campaigns by both sides, it looks like animal rights might not be an issue for just the dreadlocked vegan in your political science class anymore, either.

And the fact that, according to the proposition's Web site, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has come out in support of the initiative should be solid proof that you don't need to be a supermodel in a bikini to get people's attention about animal rights.

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full story:
http://www.asuwebdevil.com/issues/2006/08/28/opinions/697342