Treat laying hens well to get good eggs; animal welfare benefits humans

By Chen Yu-min, Director of the Environment & Animal Society, Taiwan

Eggs play a very important role in people's daily lives!

But you may not know about the grim reality of the farming system known as "battery cage layers"? In cramped cages about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, 2 to 4 chickens are locked up together, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating all inside the cage. The narrow space makes them trample on one another. Most of the chickens never once in their lives step onto the ground, let alone spread their wings to preen their feathers. Hens are forced to lay eggs continuously throughout their lives and cannot display any natural behavior. Because of concerns that the hens, living in great pain and poor physical and mental health, will fall ill, farms have no choice but to add various antibiotics to the feed to prevent disease. In addition, once the egg-laying rate drops, people use "forced fasting" to compel the chickens to molt and metabolize so they will continue to lay eggs.

This cruel production method, which treats chickens merely as "egg-laying machines," not only disregards the chickens' animal welfare needs but also gives rise to food safety and animal disease transmission problems such as avian influenza. On grounds of public health and animal welfare, the European Union, as of January 1 of this year (2012), banned farmers within its territory from raising laying hens in conventional battery cages, and legislated that all eggs sold on the market must clearly indicate which farming system they come from, so that consumers can choose among barn (indoor free-range layers), free range (in addition to indoor housing, outdoor activity space is provided for the layers) or organic (free range plus organic farming) eggs (see Attachment 2), making a choice in line with food ethics.

The EU, as well as the US states of California and Michigan, have already legislated bans on battery-cage raising of laying hens. Ohio, which ranks second in the nation in egg production, explicitly stipulates that no new cage-housing poultry sheds may be built. California goes further, providing that after 2015, no battery-cage eggs may be sold within the state, regardless of where they were produced. In addition, many fast-food businesses in the United States have already stipulated that they must use "cage-free eggs," including Burger King, Starbucks, Wendy's, Subway and others. The dining rooms of both the US Senate and House of Representatives, NASA, and the employee cafeterias of large corporations such as Google, Yahoo, Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft also serve only "cage-free" eggs and egg products.

The Society calls on Taiwan's food and beverage businesses, especially fast-food leaders McDonald's, KFC and MOS Burger, as well as the "tea eggs" sold at the four major convenience store chains, to formulate progressive "animal welfare" policies, stop using eggs produced from "battery cage layers," and switch to eggs produced with animal welfare in mind. At the same time, it calls on domestic large chain hypermarkets - Carrefour, RT-Mart, Ai-Mai (Far Eastern Geant), Sung Ching, Ding-Hao, PX Mart, Costco and others - to vigorously promote barn, free-range or organic eggs, and jointly advance sustainable animal husbandry that is friendly to human health, animal welfare and the environment.

Chen Yu-min said: Whether animals live well or not absolutely affects the quality of livestock products, and further affects humanity's sustainable development and health. The zoonotic diseases that currently threaten humanity's sustainable survival, such as avian influenza, mad cow disease and Salmonella infection, are precisely the backlash of animals caused by humans disregarding animals' needs and welfare and altering animals' nature. An egg from a hen that is not imprisoned for life and can display natural behavior is absolutely different in quality. When buying eggs, consumers should be sure to support these animal-welfare eggs! For related information, please see the "Guide to Animal Welfare Eggs on the Market."

References:

Video: Treat chickens well, and only then will there be good eggs! (Download link 1, Download link 2, Download link 3, Download link 4)

Attachment 1: Guide to Animal Welfare Eggs on the Market (PDF file), web version

Attachment 2: Overview Table of Laying Hen Farming Systems and Animal Welfare Conditions