SPCA slams industry response to MAF hen welfare study
Tuesday 5 May 2009, 6:20PM
By SPCA
459 views
The Royal New Zealand SPCA has dismissed as misleading and disingenuous, claims from the Egg Producers Federation of New Zealand that crowding layer hens together in battery cages has been vindicated by a MAF survey.
The survey of 60 farms, released yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, found little difference in stress levels between hens kept in cages and those kept in free range or barn environments.
However, as the SPCA’s National Chief Executive, Robyn Kippenberger, points out, the study did not address the crucial issue of caged hen’s inability to fulfil many of their instinctive behaviours.
“Battery cages do not, for example, allow hens to exercise, flap their wings, preen, dust-bathe or build nests, all of which are natural and habitual activities for their species. Yet the ability to perform such natural behaviours is one of the five freedoms that form the basis of the 1999 Animal Welfare Act.
“It was acknowledged when the Animal Welfare Code for Layer Hens was ratified that battery egg production fails to meet these needs and fails to comply with the Animal Welfare Act. Nothing has changed!” she says.
“It’s quite wrong to believe that one single piece of research provides justification for the retention here of a cruel farming practice that is being phased out in other countries with high animal welfare standards comparable to our own. In fact, this study flies in the face of a considerable body of international research.
“By narrowing the study to exclude instinctive behaviour, the battery egg industry has, I believe, deliberately subverted the purpose of our animal welfare legislation and sought to mislead consumers,” Robyn Kippenberger adds.
The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee is due to review battery farming later this year and is expected to decide whether or not battery cages will be allowed to continue.
Consumers wishing to ensure that they are purchasing eggs produced by cage-free hens are advised to look for the SPCA-approved label on the eggs’ carton.