Critter News

JANUARY 25, 2012

1, 2012, egg-laying hens across many European countries will live with fewer discomforts: The European Commission has officially implemented its ban on battery cages, the notoriously cramped cages used by many egg farmers and criticized by animal rights proponents and veterinarians who call them cruel and harmful to the birds' welfare.

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Battery Cages Battery Animal Welfare Welfare 100

Critter News

JULY 8, 2011

Some of the provisions will be implemented almost immediately after enactment, such as those relating to starvation, ammonia levels, and euthanasia, and others after just a few years, including labeling and the requirement that all birds will have to have at least 67 square inches of space per bird.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 6, 2014

To the Editor: Re “They’re Going to Wish They All Could Be California Hens” (front page, March 4): While the conditions in California’s colony cages are certainly better than those of the barren battery cages used for 90 percent of egg-laying hens in this country, they still involve cramming 60 animals into a wire cage, each bird with just 116 square (..)

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New York Times New York Battery Cages Farm Sanctuary 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

For example, "free roaming chickens" conjures up images of happy chickens running free and unfettered all about the barnyard, when in fact the label "free roaming chickens" just means chickens that were not raised in battery cages. Calling an inhumane practice "humane" does not make that practice humane.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 20, 2007

“Free range” does not solve the problem of painful debeaking, enormously oversized flocks or the unnatural isolation of the birds from other sexes and age groups. Though chickens can live for 5 to 11 years, after two years, they are hauled away to slaughter just like battery-caged hens.

New York Times 40

New York Times Battery Cages New York Debeaking 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Layer hens spend their entire lives permanently confined in battery cages with 6-9 other hens and have only half a square foot of living space per bird. These birds are some of the most abused animals in agriculture. One cannot produce eggs or dairy products on a large scale without the wholesale exploitation of animals.

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