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Each year, billions of chickens, cows and pigs are raised, slaughtered and fed to people in Colorado and across the U.S. and a recent survey by the nonprofit Faunalytics found a strong majority of voters actually care a lot about the conditions these animals endure in concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as factory farms.

For example, chickens are routinely kept in cages so small they can’t even move.

Allison Troy, research director for Faunalytics, said 61 percent of voters surveyed, across party lines, said they would support candidates who work to improve animal welfare and reduce the number of animals in factory farms.

"The candidates who adopted these kinds of pro-animal welfare positions not only were more popular in terms of they received more 

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support," Troy reported. "They also were perceived as being more likable, more competent and more empathetic."

A majority of liberals, moderates and conservatives surveyed said they would not vote for a candidate who promised to increase government subsidies to meat companies or remove animal welfare protections.

Proponents of factory farming have long argued it is the most efficient way to produce large quantities of affordable food.

Factory farms have faced increased scrutiny as corporate farming practices have replaced family-scale ranches. Such operations produce an estimated 17 million tons of untreated manure a year in Colorado, and many are located along the South Platte River.

Troy believes voters are concerned in part because the practice has become so prevalent.

"In terms of animal welfare, in terms of the impacts on the environment, in terms of the impacts on the people who live in communities where these factory farms are," Troy outlined. "There are a lot of public health hazards associated with factory farms and living near them."

Troy hopes the new data will give more people running for office the confidence to talk about the impacts of factory farming.

"I think that there is an assumption among many political insiders that these issues, about factory farming and about animal welfare, that it's something that people don't care about," Troy observed. "I think that our data show that's not true."