Posts Tagged ‘battery cages’

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Commission stands firm on cage ban

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

The European Commission has once again underscored that it doesn’t intend to delay the ban on barren battery cages, due to come into force in 2012. This is greatly welcome news. Especially in the face of an attempt by Poland earlier this year to derail the timescale.

The latest statement from Commissioner John Dalli, in answer to a European Parliamentary Question, should help to focus the minds of governments and industry to ensuring that all hens are out of these appalling cruel cages by the 1st January 2012, as prescribed in the law.

But as the saying goes, ‘it isn’t over till it’s over’, and we will continue to counter attempts for a delay on the ban, wherever they come from, through our campaigns and lobbying. And thank you to all those who continue to support this most important of campaigns. The fate of many millions of hens relies on it.

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US Salmonella outbreak in eggs

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

eggsHalf a billion eggs are being recalled in the USA as part of an investigation into an outbreak of Salmonella. Two farms in the State of Iowa are reportedly involved in the recall after tests proved positive for the food poisoning bug. The US Egg Safety Center has issued information on which eggs US consumers should avoid. Although reports are not clear about the exact farming method, battery cage farms dominate US egg production.

Unlike the European Union, US egg producers are not compelled to declare on the packaging how the eggs were produced. US consumers therefore often don’t have information available to make an informed choice and avoid eggs from caged hens. This lack of transparency has clear animal welfare implications. It enables battery eggs to masquerade under labels that may not give an accurate picture of the way factory farmed birds are forced to live. The significance of poor labelling goes further. Hens kept in battery cages are often at greater risk of contamination with Salmonella.

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A cage is a cage

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

With barren battery cages on course to be banned in Europe by 2012, millions of hens will benefit from better welfare. Unfortunately, not all hens will be free from confinement. The European law consigning the tiny, all-wire cages, known as barren battery cages, to history has a major imperfection; it allows the use of modified or so-called ‘enriched’ cages. These provide a small amount of extra space and objects that often bear a distant resemblance to the things that matter to hens, such as a place to nest, a perch and a place to dust-bathe. The bottom line is they confine the hens and constrain behaviours. Compassion is campaigning hard to thwart the uptake of ‘enriched’ cages, not least through our work to encourage major food companies and local authorities to go cage-free on eggs. It’s a campaign that is having an impact and 25 million hens will benefit as a result of the cage-free commitments of the companies we’re working with.

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Battery eggs terminated in California

Monday, July 12th, 2010

I recently wrote about important reforms for farm animals in the US state of Ohio. Further great news from across the Atlantic was carried in a New York Times editorial over the weekend. California’s state governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed landmark legislation that will effectively outlaw the sale of eggs produced using battery cages.

The new law will require all whole eggs to come from hens that are able to stand up, fully extend their limbs, lie down and spread their wings without touching each other or the sides of their enclosure. It will come into force in 2015 to coincide with the implementation of the ban on battery cages introduced following a landslide ballot of Californian citizens in 2008.

Wayne Pacelle of The Humane Society of the United States congratulated Governor Schwarzenegger’s action, saying, “Californians have made it clear that they don’t want unsafe eggs from hens crammed into cages, and we applaud the Legislature and governor for heeding this call.”

The New York Times editorial welcomed the news, saying “there is no justification, economic or otherwise, for the abusive practice of confining animals in spaces barely larger than the volume of their bodies. Animals with more space are healthier, and they are no less productive.” The piece signs off with a sentiment that resonates strongly with all of us here at Compassion; “Industrial confinement is cruel and senseless and will turn out to be, we hope, a relatively short-lived anomaly in modern farming.”

With your help, we really can ensure that factory farming is indeed a “short-lived anomaly”. Please continue to spread the word about the campaign, and help end the suffering of literally tens of billions of farm animals every year.

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Celebrating cage-free councils!

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Free Range Hens - CC / Flickr

Free Range Hens - CC / Flickr

One in five local authorities in the UK have now gone cage-free, pledging to buy only non-cage eggs in their procurement policies. And last night at our Good Egg Awards event in Bournemouth, we celebrated over 30 local authorities who have taken the cage-free pledge in the last year! And they thoroughly deserve our recognition and applause for their commitment to animal welfare and leadership in ethical procurement. A grand total of over 80 local authorities are now officially recognised as ‘good eggs’ and are part of the movement to better welfare, better quality food that is sweeping the corporate and public procurement worlds.

Our event was timed to coincide with the Local Government Association’s annual conference and provided the delegates from award-winning councils the opportunity to celebrate together. The awards were presented by our special guest, Pam Ayres, whose hilariously funny, yet poignant comic verse had the audience laughing and crying in equal measure. Her poem on the life of the battery hen underscored the real difference that the assembled councils were making to the lives of literally thousands of hens, thanks to their switch to using only cage-free eggs.

After the proceedings, I was approached by the owners of one of the farms supplying an award-winning council. “We need your help” he said, and explained that Compassion’s energy was needed as much as ever to ensure that the ban on barren battery cages across Europe does go ahead as planned in 2012. He told of how rumours were still circulating in the farming community that the ban might be delayed, diluted, or simply disobeyed by other countries. I reassured him that Compassion will remain ever vigilant and will not rest on this issue until the ban is enforced in full and on time. I was pleased to reassure him that only recently, the European Commissioner in charge of this area had restated that there will be no delay on the cage ban. Nevertheless, it underscored our need to remain alert to the dangers. And it highlights just why the actions of the award-winning councils are so important, both to the hens that benefit directly, and to ensuring that politicians and higher welfare farmers feel supported in their quest to bring a better deal to our laying hens.

The roll-call of councils who received their awards on the night included: Peterborough City Council, Cambridge City Council, East Sussex County Council, Wychavon District Council, Bacons College, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Ceredigion County Council, Bristol City Council, Somerset County Council, Gloucester County Council, Herefordshire County Council, Winchester City Council, Suffolk County Council, Ryedale District Council, Telford and Wrekin Council, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, West Sussex County Council, Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Kent County Council, London Borough of Hounslow, Oxfordshire County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Sedgemoor District Council and Bolton City Council. Congratulations to all of them. And a big thank you to everyone who has taken part in our Cage-free Councils Campaign. Together, we’re making a real difference to our food and farm animals.

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The things they say…

Monday, July 5th, 2010
Eggs - CC / Flickr

Eggs - CC / Flickr

I am often struck by how ill-founded myths sometimes spring up to defend factory farming. Like that old chestnut in defence of battery cages, that ‘if hens weren’t happy, they wouldn’t lay eggs’. Thankfully, scientific evidence and common sense tell us otherwise.

Reading through media clippings recently, I was interested to come across the following quote attributed to a leading figure in the broiler chicken industry: “If we put all those birds currently housed onto free range, there wouldn’t be a mountain in Scotland or a valley in Wales or any spare business land in any town, city or village that would not have a chicken on it. It’s absolutely ludicrous and impossible to achieve. ……” And thus it seems another myth is born, giving the impression that we’d be knee-deep in chickens if those animal welfarists got their way!

Well, here at Compassion, we’ve calculated just how much space it would really take to house all the nation’s broiler chickens free range. And we are happy to share them with anyone. What they show is that, if all the UK’s broiler chickens were reared for meat on free range, they would only need an area around a third of the size of the Isle of Wight. That the total area needed would represent considerably less than one thousandth of the total area of farmland in the UK to rear them in this way. That this would also take into account leaving the ground fallow to prevent it becoming ‘fowl sick’. Add to that the scope for running poultry in wooded areas, like some of the French producers do under the prestigious Label Rouge scheme, and you can see that a free range future for the nation’s chicken flock is much more practical than some believe. And it would offer a real opportunity for UK chicken producers to differentiate their products in a market crowded by the ubiquitous factory farmed chicken.

Of course, free range is not the only way of keeping hens in higher welfare farming systems. The RSPCA Freedom Food scheme, for example, produces chickens for meat reared with more space and an extensive indoor environment. And this is a concept that appears to be taking off with consumers.

All in all, I believe that, far from being “ludicrous”, creating a fairer, free range and higher welfare future for our chickens is not only practically achievable, but would have positive benefits for producers, consumers and food quality alike. You can help us break down the barriers and myths that stand between the present and a better, fairer future for chickens that provide our meat by supporting Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Compassion in World Farming and our Chicken Out! campaign.

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Ohio agrees reforms for farm animals

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Great news from America! A ground-breaking agreement has been reached in the US state of Ohio that will see the phasing out of veal crates for calves, an end to confinement stalls for pregnant pigs as well as other key measures to protect farmed and other animals. The State Governor of Ohio, the Farm Bureau and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have agreed on the following landmark advances in Ohio:

  • A ban on cruel veal crates for calves by 2017
  • A ban on new confinement stalls for pregnant pigs in the state after Dec. 31, 2010. Existing facilities must cease using sow stalls within 15 years.
  • A moratorium on permits for new battery cage confinement facilities for laying hens
  • A ban on strangulation of farm animals and mandatory humane euthanasia methods for sick or injured animals
  • A ban on the transport of sick and injured cows, known as ‘downer’ cows, for slaughter
  • Enactment of legislation establishing penalties for cock fighters
  • Enactment of legislation cracking down on puppy mills
  • Enactment of a ban on the acquisition of dangerous exotic animals as pets, such as primates, bears, lions, tigers, large constricting and venomous snakes, crocodiles and alligators.

Huge congratulations to our friends at HSUS for achieving these monumental reforms for farm animals! This is a major victory that will surely quicken the trend against farming practices that cause such suffering to farm animals.

Thank you to those supporters who were able to respond to the call to support this major initiative.

Farm animals in Ohio and the world over will benefit from this reform. Compassion sends a huge vote of thanks and congratulation, particularly to Wayne Pacelle and his dedicated team at HSUS, for making it happen.

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Helping hens

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Well, it was bound to happen before too long. I arrived home on Friday after a lengthy Board meeting to find that my fiancée had ‘rescued’ three hens at the end of their commercial egg laying life. So the weekend has been spent settling the birds into their new home, clearing up after them as they scuff the garden around and watching their personalities unfold. And there is the extra joy for me of having them around; that for the large part of my work, I don’t actually get to spend time with farm animals. Talk about them, write about them, champion them, yes. But actually spending time with individual sentient beings is a rare pleasure.

Looking at those three birds going about their business in our garden, it’s difficult to conceive the sheer scale of factory farming. Tens of thousands of birds caged in a single windowless shed. The biggest ‘unit’ I’ve seen myself had over 90,000 birds behind that one set of doors, all of them incarcerated in battery cages. And in common with other units of this type, the birds spent their lives unable to flap their wings or carry out many of their most basic behaviours.

What is so uplifting about the work that we all do, be it by our wonderful supporters and volunteers, our dedicated staff team, our enthusiastic Board members, high profile patrons like Joanna Lumley and well-wishers from all walks of life; is the sheer scale of the change that we are now bringing. Our Cage-free Councils campaign has persuaded 80 local authorities in the UK to use only cage-free eggs in their catering. Over 20 million hens benefit each year, thanks to the cage-free pledges made by our Good Egg Award-winning companies in the first three years of the programme. And hundreds of millions of hens stand to benefit from our work to keep the European ban on barren battery cages, due to come into force in 2012.

Thank you all for the work you do and for bringing hope in what otherwise might seem a hopeless world in the fight to end factory farming.

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Campaigners outside the Polish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden DSC00756Campaigners in Bratislava, Slovakia Supporters sign a petition to defend the the hens in Warsaw, PolandCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in The Hague, NetherlandsMr. Jankowski, The Ambassador’s personal councilor with Amalia Sotirhou at the Polish Embassy in Psychiko, GreeceCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in Berlin, Germany Campaigners at the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, PolandCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia

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