Important News For Hens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HallFamilyFarm]

Did not see this thread before I started a similiar one. So here is what I had posted:

It does concern me that the organization and the commercial industry are attempting legislation that would impact the Backyard and Exhibition Poultry folks.

Here is the link to their joint press release, pasted below. http://www.unitedegg.org/homeNews/UEP_Press_Release_7-7-11.pdf

http://www.unitedegg.org

We should all contact our Congressmen and Senators and demand that at the very least, Backyard and Exhibition flocks be specifically exempt from the industry rules. Please understand, I am opposed to 10-20 hens stuffed into a pen we would only put one or 2 in. However, the organization has made it clear they want NO animal ownership. A minority of society should not be able to force a majority to change a way of life.

My biggest concern is the part that reads: prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements. If Backyard and Exhibition flocks do not meet their standards, we can not sell our eggs. In other words, no egg or chick sells if we do meet their standards.

Please post your thoughts on this. Lets agree to disagree if we disagree. Lets not agrue over minor points. But stand UNITED to preserve ownership of Backyard and Exhibition Poultry!

The Humane sociaety is not concerned with animal welfare. That is a proven fact. They are concerned with animal ownership. Anytime 80% of an industry joins with a non-industry organization to force legislation on the rest of us, that causes me great concern.

Historic Agreement Hatched to Set National Standard
for Nation’s Egg Industry
organization and UEP Find Common Ground and a New Way Forward—
Ballot Measures Suspended in Oregon and Washington
(July 7, 2011)—The Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers announce an unprecedented agreement to work together toward the enactment of comprehensive new federal legislation for all 280 million hens involved in U.S. egg production. The proposed standards advocated by UEP and organization, if enacted, would be the first federal law addressing the treatment of animals on farms.
The proposed legislation would:
• require conventional cages (currently used by more than 90 percent of the egg industry) to be replaced, through an ample phase-in period, with new, enriched housing systems that provide each hen nearly double the amount of space they’re currently allotted. Egg producers will invest an additional $4 billion over the next decade and a half to effect this industry-wide make-over;
• require that all egg-laying hens be provided, through the new enriched housing system, with environments that will allow hens to express natural behaviors, such as perches, nesting boxes, and scratching areas;
• mandate labeling on all egg cartons nationwide to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs, such as “eggs from caged hens,” “eggs from hens in enriched cages,” “eggs from cage-free hens,” and “eggs from free-range hens”;
• prohibit feed- or water-withholding molting to extend the laying cycle, a practice already prohibited by the United Egg Producers Certified program adhered to by a majority of egg farmers;
• require standards approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association for euthanasia for egg laying hens;
• prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses;
• prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements.
The two groups will jointly ask Congress for federal legislation which would require egg producers to increase space per bird in a tiered phase in, with the amount of space birds are given increasing, in intervals, over the next 15 to 18 years. Currently, the majority of birds are each provided 67 square inches of space, with roughly 50 million receiving 48 square inches. The
proposed phase-in would culminate with hens nationwide being provided a minimum of 124 -
144 square inches of space, along with the other improvements noted.
“America’s egg producers have continually worked to improve animal welfare, and we strongly
believe our commitment to a national standard for hen welfare is in the best interest of our
animals, customers and consumers,” said Bob Krouse, chairman of UEP and an Indiana egg
farmer. “We are committed to working together for the good of the hens in our care and believe a
national standard is far superior than a patchwork of state laws and regulations that would be
cumbersome for our customers and confusing to consumers.”
“Passing this bill would be an historic improvement for hundreds of millions of animals per
year,” stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “It
is always our greatest hope to find common ground and to forge solutions, even with traditional
adversaries. We are excited about a new and better pathway forward, and hope the Congress
seizes the opportunity to embrace this sort of collaboration and mutual understanding. We extend
our thanks to the producers within the industry for agreeing to make the needed investments to
upgrade their housing and to improve animal welfare in a meaningful way.”
If passed by Congress, the legislation would supersede state laws including those that have been
passed in Arizona, California, Michigan and Ohio. In recognition of ballot Proposition 2 passed
by voters in that California in 2008, UEP and organization will ask Congress to require California egg
producers – with nearly 20 million laying hens – to eliminate conventional cages by 2015 (the
date Prop 2 is scheduled to go into effect), and provide all hens with the space and environmental
enrichments that the rest of the egg industry will be phasing in over the next 15 to 18 years.
These requirements will also apply to the sale of all eggs and egg products in California under
the proposed federal legislation.
This agreement to pass comprehensive federal legislation for standards of egg production puts a
hold on planned ballot measures related to egg-laying hens in both Washington and Oregon.
-30-
Media Contacts:
organization: Anna West, 757-575-0079, [email protected]; Heather Sullivan, 240-
477-2551, [email protected]
UEP: Jewanna Porter, 404-367-2761, [email protected]
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal protection organization—backed by 12
million Americans, or one of every 28. For more than a half-century, The organization has been fighting for the protection
of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—
on the web at humanesociety.org.
United Egg Producers (UEP) is a Capper-Volstead cooperative for U.S. egg farmers, representing the ownership of
approximately 80 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hens. UEP members produce eggs using various systems
including modern cage production, cage-free, free range, organic and other specialty eggs. For more information
about UEP, please go to unitedegg.org.​

 

[Mac in Wisco]

The European Union is not banning battery cages in 2012. They are banning conventional battery cages. The producers have the option to switch to cage-free systems or to enhanced cages.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
As I stated earlier, such laws are usually written for the industry and exclude small flocks and direct sales. The FDA regulations for egg producers only includes those with flocks of 3000 hens or larger. Those with less than 3000 hens or those who sell all of their production directly to the consumer are exempt from the FDA production regulations such as the new salmonella prevention regulations. If you have less than 3000 hens the FDA doesn't even know that you exist. Those with greater than 3000 are required to register with the FDA.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Well I still think it would be a good idea to have Backyard and exhibition flocks exempt. Most of us alraedy care for our birds better than any law could regulate. Sometimes government just needs to stay out of agriculture.

 

[chickened]

These issues belong in the industry forum not in the referendum process.
Quote:
As I stated earlier, such laws are usually written for the industry and exclude small flocks and direct sales. The FDA regulations for egg producers only includes those with flocks of 3000 hens or larger. Those with less than 3000 hens or those who sell all of their production directly to the consumer are exempt from the FDA production regulations such as the new salmonella prevention regulations. If you have less than 3000 hens the FDA doesn't even know that you exist. Those with greater than 3000 are required to register with the FDA.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

If we do not watch, we may find that suddenly we are included. I for one will be requesting my Congressman and Senator adding an exemption to any bill that would place my flock in jeapordy. One poultry judge stated elsewhere that this would bring our egg sales up. If the stores raised their egg prices, our egg sales would go up...if we were not regulated with them. Most of us do not cage our birds. But we should have the right to house our backyard and exhibition flocks as we seem fit. Not as the humane society seems fit.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I'm not even sure what you were trying to say...

 

[chickened]

I meant that we should not be voting on these management issues in the ballot box, why in the **** do we have the USDA for and all the ologists that are paid nice salaries for to comparatively ask what our opinion on the matter is (like asking people what they want for dinner)especially as most people have never been to an egg farm or even near one but rely on hear say to make an informed decision that will cost the industry millions.

Leave the management of the egg business up to the professionals and keep the emotional folks out of the way. Those cages are only as cruel as the observers emotional state, it is all relative like I said earlier which seems to not matter but hens will not lay in stressed situations and it seems that that would be self governing enough. This is a waste of time and resources nature is far more cruel than any chicken farm especially if you are a zebra in a pride of lions, if they were caged rats would it be different? what a confused crowd we have become, the whole idea here is absurd and is another facet of spending donated money to perpetuate a fictitious problem. The egg industry knows it will cost them money when hens quit laying. I hear questions on here all the time about how I can get my hens to do things contrary to natural doings of chickens, where is the difference.

Hopefully this latest quandry will put to rest the issue at hand. As my wife would say" leave it alone".