Battery cages are wire cages that measure about 18 by 20 inches, and they are where about 95 percent of laying hens spend their entire lives. To get a sense of a hen’s life in a battery cage, imagine spending your entire life in a wire cage the size of your bathtub with four other people. You wouldn’t be able to move, so your muscles and bones would deteriorate. Your feet would become lacerated. You would go insane. That’s precisely what happens to laying hens.
Battery cages have been illegal across Europe for over a year, and some countries banned them many years ago. McDonald’s in the EU hasn’t put eggs from caged hens into its McMuffins in years. In two years, California will become the first state where the cages are illegal. Massachusetts can be the second, if we pass the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, introduced by Senator Robert Hedlund and Representative Jason Lewis. The bill has the strong support of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the ASPCA, and Farm Sanctuary.
Comments
Egg farmers are already moving away from these conventional cages into enriched colony housing systems which provide hens nearly twice the amount of space, plus enrichments like perches, nest boxes and scratch areas. America’s egg farmers are working with the Humane Society of the United States to formalize this transition from conventional cages into enriched colony housing systems through federal legislation. We urge everyone to contact their Congressmen and ask them to support the Egg Bill as part of the Farm Bill that Congress says it will consider this year! Pursuing state-by-state legislation is not the proper way to address this.
Chad Gregory, President
United Egg Producers
Why do Humans treat our Animal Cousins so hideously? Oh, money.. STOP WIRED CAGES NOW!
Ed Ellis, P.E.T.A. Member, Mission Hill