Santa Clarita : Official Asks Colleagues to Ban Veal Sale

The city of Santa Clarita, which has passed moratoriums on cutting down oak trees, closing mobile home parks and erecting billboards, may now extend its legislative power to the meat counter.

Councilwoman Jan Heidt says the city should consider banning the sale of veal.

Heidt, saying Santa Clarita is full of animal-lovers, made the proposal Thursday night after reading a magazine story detailing what she said were inhumane practices used to produce milk-fed veal. The calves are confined in narrow crates and not allowed to exercise to create tender meat, she said.

“I grew up on a farm,” she said, where she learned “the values of taking good care of animals that you’re going to butcher as well as the ones you’re going to keep.”

At first, Heidt suggested the council endorse a bill by Assemblyman Tom Bates (D-Oakland) that would require ranchers to raise veal calves in pens large enough for the animals to turn around and lie down.

Mayor Stops Reading

Heidt started to read the magazine article, but was stopped by Mayor Howard P. (Buck) McKeon. “Is this going to make me sick?” he asked.

Heidt agreed not to read the rest of the article and instead asked the council to endorse the Bates bill. When someone pointed out that the legislative session had ended, Heidt suggested that the city ban the sale of veal. The council held off endorsing Bates’ bill or Heidt’s proposal but agreed to consider the veal issue sometime in the future.

An early version of the bill passed the Senate and Assembly this year but was sent back to the Assembly Agriculture Committee for revision. The bill died on a procedural technicality in August, said Bradley Miller, executive director of the San Francisco-based Humane Farming Assn., chief backer of the bill.

Miller said Bates’ bill, which might be reintroduced when the Legislature reconvenes in January, was supported by various animal-rights groups but not by any municipalities. The California Farm Bureau and the cattle industry opposed the bill.