Jennifer Fearing, Humane Society State Director, Pushes Animal Welfare In California

Jennifer Fearing, Humane Society State Director, Pushes Animal Welfare In California: "I've been working to build bridges. I'm not some crazy Jihad terrorist," said Fearing, 40. "Let's sit down and work constructively in the areas where we agree and make animals' lives better in those areas."

In the Supreme Court last week, the justices heard an appeal from the National Meat Association, which seeks to block the 2009 state law that barred the butchering of downer cows. Critical questions about the law from the justices appeared to side with the meat industry's position.

The notion that animal welfare activists know more about caring for livestock than do farmers galls Jill Benson, the fourth-generation owner of Modesto egg producer JS West. Since Prop 2 she has fought negative perceptions by taking a mobile chicken house on the road and placing a live cam in one of her massive egg barns newly outfitted with bigger cages.

"We as farmers have always cared for our animals, but we have not done a good job in communicating to the consumer how we do that," said West, who is critical of what she describes as HSUS scare tactics. "An animal activist group can spin it with deplorable video and tell a story that the consumer believes is common practice, when, in fact, it is one bad apple."

People supporting R animals can be secretive and deceptive like terrorists, sometimes they are countered by B farmers also being secretive and deceptive or acting as Bi being more transparent.