A statement from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that Maine Governor, John Baldacci, has signed landmark legislation preventing two controversial factory farm confinement methods.

Effective 1 January 2011, the new law will prohibit gestation crates and veal crates – individual cages that virtually immobilise breeding pigs and veal calves for nearly their entire lives.

LD 1021 was sponsored by Senator John Nutting (Democrat-Androscoggin County), Senate Chair of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. It passed the committee and both chambers unanimously.

HSUS says it strongly backed the legislation.

"It's cruel and inhumane to confine animals in cages barely larger than their own bodies for months on end," said Katie Lisnik, Maine state director of HSUS.

"We're grateful to Senator Nutting for his humane leadership on this important legislation and hope its enactment sends a message to other states that they should follow suit," she said.

The ban follows Californians overwhelmingly passed a similar measure, The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, by ballot initiative last year. Four other states have since passed similar reforms, including Colorado, Florida, Arizona and Oregon.

Major national retailers like Safeway and Burger King are increasingly phasing in crate-free and cage-free products due to consumer demand. And the top veal and pork producers in the country – such as Smithfield Foods, Strauss Veal and Marcho Farms – have begun to phase out crates and move toward group housing systems for pigs and calves, concludes the HSUS press release.