Just three months after Ohio voters approved creating the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, animal activist groups led by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are seeking to gather enough signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot.

That ballot would require the standards board to adopt certain restrictions on the care of farm animals. HSUS is calling for minimum standards around cage or pen size for veal calves, pigs and layer hens and euthanasia of sick and injured animals.

It also seeks standards for slaughtering downer cows, even though federal rules have already banned those animals from entering the food chain.

The activist groups must collect 600,000 signatures to petition the Ohio secretary of state to place a ballot measure on the November election. Other groups involved include Farm Sanctuary, several state animal rights organizations, Center for Food Safety, Consumer Federation of America and Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The standards board is supported by the Ohio Pork Producers Council, the Ohio Association of Meat Processors, dozens of business and agricultural organizations and more than 100 legislators.