“In no way can these living conditions meet the
demands of a complex nervous system designed to form a multitude of memories
and make complex decisions.”(1)
—Lesley Rogers, Ph.D., on battery
cages, author of The Development of Brain and Behaviour in the Chicken
Wegmans, as a member of United Egg Producers (UEP), tries to defend the inhumane practices at its egg facility as scientifically
sound. Yet the company ignores credible, scientific research that suggests standard practices in the egg industry cause unnecessary animal suffering. These practices include crowding birds into barren cages with no opportunity to exhibit natural tendencies such as nesting, roosting, or dust bathing; starving birds to induce another laying cycle; and mutilating their beaks without painkiller.
Compiled on this page are relevant quotes from expert scientists and
veterinarians, as well as The Humane Society of the United States. This collection of quotes was originally published at EggScam.com.
Dr. Mench on Battery Cages
(UEP guidelines, which Wegmans follows, recommend barren battery cages.)
Notes: In November Wegmans announced that it would be working with Dr. Mench over the next year and that she will, "examine [its] egg farm operation and make recommendations for improvement if necessary." Dr. Mench sat on the UEP’s advisory committee
for its animal welfare guidelines, which recommend 67 square inches of
cage space per bird for white laying hens, an amount of space Dr. Mench
calls “meager”:
- “The recommended space allowance for laying hens in some countries
is 60-80 square inches per hen, barely enough for the hen to turn around
and not enough for her to perform normal comfort behaviors; however,
many hens are allowed less than even that meager amount.”(2)
- “Battery cages provide an inadequate environment for nesting,
lacking both sites which fit these criteria [concealment and separation
from other birds] as well as substrates for nest-building. Hens housed
in battery cages display agitated pacing and escape behaviors which
last for 2 to 4 hours prior to oviposition.”(3)
- “A different decision about the minimum recommendation would
have been reached had the committee given more weight to the information
from the preference testing and use of space studies, since these indicate
that hens need and want more space than 72 square inches.”(4)
Dr. Mench on “Beak Trimming”
(Wegmans cuts off the tips of hens' beaks without painkiller.)
- “There is mounting evidence that beak trimming also results
in behavioral and neurophysiological changes indicative of acute and
chronic pain. … Both beak trimmed chicks and adults display difficulty
in grasping and swallowing feed even when their pecking rates are high.”(5)
Mench: “Chickens explore their environment with their beaks.
They like to pick things up, and that’s their main way of exploring
and touching and feeling things.”
NPR: “So, cutting off the beak is a big deal, if you’re
a hen?”
Mench: “It’s definitely a big deal.”(6)
Dr. Mench on Forced Molting
(Wegmans follows UEP guidelines, which do not prohibit forced molting.)
- “The bird is starved. Yes, the bird is starved. I don’t
like to see hungry animals not being given food.”(7)
- “Feed restriction and deprivation can thus lead to boredom
and the development of stereotypies and vices.”(8)
Dr. Duncan on Battery Cages(9)
(UEP guidelines, which Wegmans follows, recommend barren battery cages.)
- “Hens in battery cages are prevented from performing several
natural behaviour patterns. … The biggest source of frustration
is undoubtedly the lack of nesting opportunity.”(10)
- “The lack of physical space may actually prevent them from
adopting certain postures or performing particular behaviours.”(11)
- “[T]he difficulty of inspecting cages means that the welfare
of the birds is at some risk.”(12)
- “The lack of space in battery cages reduces welfare by preventing
hens from adopting certain postures—such as an erect posture with
the head raised—and performing particular behaviors—such
as wing-flapping.”(13)
- “Battery cages for laying hens have been shown (by me and others)
to cause extreme frustration particularly when the hen wants to lay
an egg. Battery cages are being phased out in Europe and other more
humane husbandry systems are being developed.”(14)
Dr. Duncan on “Beak Trimming”
(Wegmans cuts off the tips of hens' beaks without painkiller.)
- “There is now good morphological, neurophysical, and behavioral
evidence that beak trimming leads to both chronic and acute pain.”(15)
- “[Beak trimming] has been shown (by me and by others) to cause
both acute and chronic pain and should not be allowed to be carried
out routinely. It has been banned in some European countries and they
have shown that it is possible to keep hens without de-beaking them.”(16)
Dr. Duncan on Forced Molting
(Wegmans follows UEP guidelines, which do not prohibit forced molting.)
- “[T]he evidence suggests that hens suffer enormously during
forced molting.”(17)
- “[Forced molting] is a barbaric practice which doubles mortality
in the flock while it is going and leads to great suffering in all the
hens involved.”(18)
Dr. Rogers on Battery Cages
(UEP guidelines, which Wegmans follows, recommend barren battery cages.)
Referring to battery cages, Dr. Rogers writes:
- “In no way can these living conditions meet the demands of
a complex nervous system designed to form a multitude of memories and
make complex decisions.”(19)
Dr. Rogers on Chickens
- “With increased knowledge of the behaviour and cognitive abilities
of the chicken, has come the realization that the chicken is not an
inferior species to be treated merely as a food source.”(20)
Dr. Baxter on Battery Cages
(UEP guidelines, which Wegmans follows, recommend barren battery cages.)
- “The space available in a battery cage does not allow hens
even to stand still in the way they would in a more spacious environment.
Some behaviours are completely inhibited by confinement in a cage causing
a progressive accumulation of motivation to perform the behaviours.”(21)
- “When crowded together this regulatory system breaks down and
the hens appear to be in a chronic state of social stress, perpetually
trying to get away from their cagemates, not able to express dominance
relations by means of spacing and not even able to resolve social conflict
by means of aggression.”(22)
- “[T]he frustration of nesting motivation is likely to cause
significant suffering to the hen during the prelaying period every day.”(23)
- “Hens without access to perches may have more welfare problems
resulting from increased aggression, reduced bone strength, impaired
foot condition and higher feather loss.”(24)
- “The fact that hens are restricted from exercising to such
an extent that they are unable to maintain the strength of their bones
is probably the greatest single indictment of the battery cage. The
increased incidence of bone breakage which results is a serious welfare
insult.”(25)
Dr. Appleby on the UEP Guidelines
- “We believe the egg industry still has a long way to go before
they can claim to be treating animals humanely. … The proposal
put forth recognizes that animal welfare is a consideration, but it
fails to address the worst abuses that are standard practice in the
egg industry.”(26)
Dr. Grandin on the "Animal Care Certified" standards (which have recently been replaced with "United Egg Producers Certified"):
- “[Grandin] said the egg industry is improving, but the new standards
are too weak.”
“Some of these people have forgotten a hen is a live animal,”
Grandin said. “This is what happens when people get totally
desensitized to suffering.”
Grandin said the industry is still held back by old-guard, animals-as-machines
views that are standing in the way of more progressive approaches.
She said in many cases, hens are still crammed so tight in cages they
can't lie down. (27)
Dr. Grandin on the Egg Industry
- “When I visited a large egg layer operation and saw old hens
that had reached the end of their productive life, I was horrified.
Egg layers bred for maximum egg production and the most efficient feed
conversion were nervous wrecks that had beaten off half their feathers
by constant flapping against the cage. …
“Some egg producers got rid of old hens by suffocating them
in plastic bags or dumpsters. The more I learned about the egg industry
the more disgusted I got. Some of the practices that had become “normal”
for this industry were overt cruelty. Bad had become normal. Egg producers
had become desensitized to suffering.
“There is a point where economics alone must not be the sole
justification for an animal production practice. When the egg producers
asked me if I wanted cheap eggs I replied, ‘Would you want to
buy a shirt if it was $5 cheaper and made by child slaves?’
Hens are not human but research clearly shows that they feel pain
and can suffer.”(28)
Dr. Grandin on Male Chicks
(UEP guidelines, and Wegmans, are silent on male chicks.)
- “One of first things she did was tour a chicken hatchery. She
asked a worker what he did with the boxes of cull baby chicks. She was
told the worker who looked after them was on vacation.
- ‘Ya sure,’ I said. ‘I know what you’re doing
with them and it’s going to stop,’” she said.
- “They were throwing live animals in the dumpster to get rid
of them. I was going ‘What? They were doing what?’ Nobody
would throw a live calf in a dumpster. These people forgot this is a
live animal.”(29)
Dr. Dunayer on the UEP Guidelines
- “In the end, the UEP’s guidelines do little more than
codify already present industry practices. The proposed increase in
space allotted to each chicken is both insignificant and falls well
short of the area a chicken needs to carry out her normal behaviors.”(30)
Click here to read Dr.
Dunayer’s full statement on the UEP guidelines.
Dr. Patterson on the UEP Guidelines
- “The UEP’s attempt to address welfare concerns in laying
flocks and to standardize husbandry practices is meager at best. Even
though some useful recommendations are made, in most cases they are
so vague and riddled with loopholes, that practically any egg producer
could be “Animal Care Certified.” My biggest concern is
how this certification program will mislead consumers into believing
that they are buying eggs from producers that treat hens humanely.”(31)
Click here to read Dr. Patterson’s
full statement on the UEP guidelines.
- “The United Egg Producers is not tackling the systematic abuses
within the industry that severely compromise the welfare of individual
birds. … [The UEP guidelines] seem designed more to mollify consumers
than to address the extreme animal welfare abuses that have become the
norm in this industry.”(32)
References
- Lesley J. Rogers. The Development of Brain and
Behaviour in the Chicken. (Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CAB International,
1995, p. 218).
- David Fraser, Joy Mench, Suzanne Millman. “Farm
Animals and Their Welfare in 2000,” State of the Animals 2001,
Humane Society Press, 2001, p. 93-94.
- Joy A. Mench. “The Welfare of Poultry in Modern
Production Systems,” Poultry Science Reviews 4: p. 112.
- Joy Mench, Janice Swanson. “Developing Science-Based
Animal Welfare Guidelines.” A speech delivered at the 2000 Poultry
Symposium and Egg Processing Workshop. http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pubs.htm.
- Joy A. Mench. “The Welfare of Poultry in Modern
Production Systems,” Poultry Science Reviews 4: p. 117.
- “McDonald’s & Farming,” National
Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” program aired
on April 15, 2002. http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1141753.
- Ibid.
- Joy A. Mench. “The Welfare of Poultry in Modern
Production Systems,” Poultry Science Reviews 4: p. 112.
- Dr. Duncan also has some positive comments on the
welfare of hens in battery cages, mainly that they are more hygienic
than production systems which group thousands of birds together on a
floor, as is practiced by many so-called “cage-free” egg
facilities. As well, hens seem to prefer to live in smaller groups of
birds than in much larger ones containing thousands of birds, as is
the practice of many “cage-free” but not necessarily truly
free-range commercial egg facilities.
- Ian J. Duncan. “The Pros and Cons of Cages,”
World’s Poultry Science Journal 2001: 57, p. 385.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., p. 383.
- Ian J. Duncan. “Thirty Years of Progress in
Animal Welfare Science,” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare
Science, 1998: 1, pp. 151-154.
- Ian J. Duncan. Letter dated June 25, 2003, to Dr.
Nancy Halpern, New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
- Ian J. Duncan. “The Science of Animal Well-Being.”
A report from a speech in the Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter,
National Agriculture Library, 1993 (Jan.–March): 4.1, p. 5. As
cited in Karen Davis’ Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs
(Book Publishing Company, 1996, p. 68).
- Ian J. Duncan. Letter dated June 25, 2003, to Dr.
Nancy Halpern, New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
- Ian J. Duncan. “Thirty Years of Progress in
Animal Welfare Science,” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare
Science, 1998: 1, pp. 151-154.
- Ian J. Duncan. Letter dated June 25, 2003, to Dr.
Nancy Halpern, New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
- Lesley J. Rogers. The Development of Brain and
Behaviour in the Chicken. (Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CAB International,
1995, p. 218).
- Ibid., p. 213.
- Michael R. Baxter. “The Welfare Problems of
Laying Hens in Battery Cages,” The Veterinary Record 1994:
134, p. 617.
- Ibid., p. 618.
- Ibid., p. 618.
- Ibid., p. 615.
- Ibid., p. 618.
- HSUS press release entitled, “HSUS Says Egg
Industry Guidelines Don't Go Far Enough,” June 27, 2002. http://www.hsus.org/ace/14515.
- Todd Hartman, "A fix in the henhouse,"
Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 16, 2002.
- Temple Grandin, Ph.D. “Corporations Can Be
Agents of Great Improvements in Animal Welfare and Food Safety and the
Need for Minimum Decent Standards.” A paper presented at the National
Institute of Animal Agriculture on April 4, 2001. http://www.grandin.com/welfare/corporation.agents.html.
- Mary MacArthur. “Analyst Says Poultry Growers
Oblivious to Poor Conditions,” Western Producer, Dec. 12,
2002.
- Eric Dunayer, DVM. Letter dated May 8, 2003, regarding
new UEP guidelines. Click
here for the full letter.
- Christopher Patterson, DVM. Letter dated June 8,
2003, regarding new UEP guidelines. Click
here for the full letter.
- HSUS press release entitled, “HSUS Says Egg
Industry Guidelines Don't Go Far Enough,” June 27, 2002. http://www.hsus.org/ace/14515.
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