Letter: Support ban on battery cages for egg-laying hens

Posted 4/5/18

To the editor:

Once again, legislation has been proposed in Rhode Island to ban battery cages for egg-laying hens. The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, H-7456, is a modest measure which …

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Letter: Support ban on battery cages for egg-laying hens

Posted

To the editor:

Once again, legislation has been proposed in Rhode Island to ban battery cages for egg-laying hens. The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, H-7456, is a modest measure which would mandate that chickens be granted the luxury of enough space to spread their wings within their enclosures. It is not a lot to ask, but for some reason, this is a very controversial issue. 

The big players in the agricultural industry claim that chickens are safer and healthier in intensive confinement. This is simply not true. In 2009, I worked with Rhode Island Vegan Awareness to rescue 15 spent hens from Little Rhody Egg Farm, the only entity in Rhode Island that would actually be affected by passage of H-7456. I can attest to the fact that battery-caged hens are anything but safe and healthy. They are more likely bald, battered and fit for nothing more profitable at the end of their laying careers than the stew pot or processed pet food. 

The birds I rescued in 2009 had been debeaked, force-molted, and had spent the majority of their lives caged in a windowless warehouse in Foster. I intercepted a shipment of 800 Little Rhody hens on their way to slaughter at a small live market in Providence. They arrived on a bitterly cold morning in March, on the back of an open-sided truck, with scarcely any feathers and no protection from the elements on their 25-mile journey. 

They were nearly frozen when the truck pulled into the alley behind the market, where I had arranged to purchase 15 birds, and I asked the men who were unloading them to pick 15 at random and place them into the cardboard boxes that I had lined with wood shavings for their comfort. I was only able to place 15 in permanent sanctuary, and it was awful not to be able to spare them all the fate that awaited them inside the market. 

One of the birds squawked very loudly, as if in pain, when she was yanked from the transport crate on the truck and placed in my box. I learned later that she had suffered an untreated pelvic break at the farm, which is not surprising, considering that caged hens are often so depleted of calcium at the end of their productive lives that their bones are fragile. This bird never recovered from her injuries, and though she was able to experience human kindness in the last days of her life, she would not go on to forage, explore, socialize, and dust bathe in the fresh air and sunshine as the other fourteen did. 

So, it really angers me when I hear that it is for the welfare of the birds that they are kept for nearly two years in cages that provide each bird a patch of personal space roughly the dimensions of a sheet of notebook paper. Chickens in battery cages struggle for any space they can get, and the weaker birds are often trampled by the stronger ones. 

Little Rhody relies on its image as a small family farm, as well as the public’s desire to buy green and locally. This shows in their updated, environmentally-friendly packaging, and in the iconic Alex and Ani barnyard exhibit at Roger Williams Zoo, where Little Rhody sponsors hands-on egg collection stations for children. But green packaging and anachronistic barnyard exhibits do not reflect the reality of Little Rhody Egg Farm, where profit is the bottom line. 

Please let Rep. Dennis Canario and Sen. James Seveney know that you think Little Rhody should step up to the plate and make the commitment to animal welfare that corporate giants like Walmart, McDonalds, and Stop & Shop have already made by refusing to purchase eggs from suppliers who confine hens in battery cages. 

For more about Little Rhody’s farming practices, check out the exposé I published in conjunction with the rescue. It was published in Poultry Press, a publication of the national nonprofit animal advocacy group, United Poultry Concerns. You can find it online at: http://upc-online.org/spring2009/life-and-death-on-little-rhody.html.

Christa Albrecht-Vegas

259 Sprague St.

Portsmouth

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