Legislation to improve lives of egg laying hens

[Attila the Hen]

The following was cut and pasted from an e-mail from the Humane Society.
If you are interested,you can probably get additional information from the Humane Society's website.


A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers just introduced legislation in Congress to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of egg-laying hens. H.R. 3798, The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012, would require significantly more space plus environmental enrichments for these birds, along with banning forced starvation molting and providing consumers accurate information on cartons about how the birds were raised (e.g., "eggs from caged hens," or "eggs from cage-free hens").

Please make a brief, polite phone call today to Representative Tom Graves (202) 225-5211 , urging co-sponsorship for H.R. 3798, the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012.

 

[AquaEyes]

Another industry being forced out of the country along with the jobs in the making. Looks like Mexico will be furnishing us with our eggs. When the cost of eggs is too high here we simply will import them. Just curious where the Feds get authority to do this? We already have good animal husbandry laws this proposal has nothing to do with health but all to do with emotions. I have seen these egg factories they are state of the art and the hens are well cared for. Just another waste of taxpayers time and money. This is not the U.K. where they have already killed thier economy through over regulation.

ETA anything supported by the HSUS is bad for any chicken owner as ownership itself is not supported by them.

The cost of eggs today is ridiculously low, because of ultra-intensive and non-sustainable rearing practices.

I did some interesting quick research. In 1961, the average price of a dozen eggs in this country was $0.57. I then used the inflation calculator link provided on http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#inflation to figure out what $0.57 equals in today's dollar. I got $4.29. This seems to be about what the "high-end" truly free-range organic eggs cost today. Hmmmm.....

So to say this will "drive up the prices of eggs" is only partially correct. It will "drive them up" to be higher than the unnaturally low price they are today. Americans spend a lower percentage of their income on food today than ever before, less than half as compared to 1950, and less than most other industrialized nations, and we show it in our waistlines -- foods that SHOULD be more expensive and SHOULD be eaten less frequently are now abundant and eaten too often. Basically, we've gotten used to unnaturally cheap, abundant and unhealthy forms of animal protein as a result of non-sustainable and increasingly perceived as non-ethical food production practices. I think it's time we start examining how we produce food, its effects on us, and how long current systems will last.

 

[RHRanch]

That is very interesting. I would liketo see what the production and feed to egg ratio was then.
I think that the hens that are used in mass production have been developed by man for egg production and it is not really fair to come along after all the advancements and say "Ok now that you have created this artificial breed of bird you have to treat them in a way that they were not intended to be treated by design because I feel they are being mistreated" These birds do exactly what they are made for and that is to produce eggs and they do it better than what any BYCer can claim and now someone wants to tell me they are mistreated. These hens would not lay as well as they do if they are being mistreated and I have yet to see any data showing otherwise. Who here keeps their coop at a constant temperature or provides the best feed available to their birds?

This whole movement is based on a human emotion somehow applied to chicken. Ridiculous!! I have seen worse abuse at the hands of private owners. I have a white leghorn production hen and she is freeranged and is still the wildest wackiest bird I own, it is as if she needs confinement to settle down and she lays an egg almost every day.

And as with any legislation the devil will be in the details. There will be so much junk attached that the intent of the bill will be lost.

Leghorns (Pearl White/Production type) are not some scientifically developed test tube bird. Leghorns are an old heritage breed. The production layer was developed from regular old heritage Leghorns and they are no different from them in their ability to function outside of factory conditions. In fact, the flightiness of leghorns is intuitively something that as a factory farmer you would think that you would want not to have a problem with. Certainly the leghorns I had despised confinement even in my large open air pens as much as they disliked smaller pens, much of the nervous behavior I have seen seems exacerbated in confinement. I have had plenty of Leghorns, production type. I would add that in terms of flightiness, they are about the same as any other mediterranean class chicken in terms of behaviors and adaptability to free range, group confinement, etc in my personal experience. To me it seems that you are suggesting that production leghorns were developed for confinement systems and therefore happier/better off in them. If that is your point, I respectfully have to disagree. You just can't convince me that should these hens have more space to move their wings, etc. that they will be worse off or perform less well. If that were the case, i would suggest it is due to poor management of those systems, not the extra space, etc.

 

[AquaEyes]

So which is better, forced molt or culling a hen after her first egg cycle? If records show that most stress is caused during the second laying cycle or during forced molt industry may opt to cull all hens after 300 or so eggs leading to more hens ran through the system. It is a lose lose situation for the hens in the end which puts us back to my original statement that animal welfare group organizers really do not have the welfare of animals at heart like thier supporters it is more of an industry in and of itself that supports them, lawyers, and others that profit from donation solicitation.

It is becoming more clear to me that this is a long term plan to abolish traditional animal husbandry methods and mass food production so the newer modeling of food creation can take hold like forcing folks to do community gardening, riding thier bike to get there and in the end force people into these small isolated areas to house them and control them. This is the model being used in parts of Detroit in an effort to save that city.

In my opinion, it is more humane to cull than to starve. Humaneness is about reducing suffering, and a swift death is more humane than a slow death from starvation to induce a molt cycle.

It's not very traditional -- it's less than a hundred years old, therefore it's a relatively new method of animal husbandry with respect to the thousands of years chickens have been domesticated. The first battery system was begun in the 1930's on a small scale, then taken and expanded into what we see today. Traditional agriculture was about many smaller producers. Modern agriculture is about fewer but larger producers. Efforts to change how things are done now are in the spirit of returning to aspects of traditional agriculture, not becoming "more modern." I don't understand how you are thinking otherwise, or why you think "saving the farm factories" is somehow "preserving traditional agriculture."

 

[Fred's Hens]

Just one man's opinion, but the requirements have already been widely agreed to. Doubling cage space, etc. The main point of this bill, which hasn't even been written yet, is to level the playing field for all producers. In other words, rather than have this agreement with some, but not all, producers, those who agree would be at cost of production disadvantage to competitors who did not voluntarily agree to the changes. By codifying the agreement, all producers would have to abide by the proposed changes.

The time frame suggested is something like 16 years for full implementation. This long time period allows producers the time to make the change over within a normal depreciated period, for the equipment involved. There is also political pressures from foreign governments to level the playing field internationally so that no major egg producing country has a perceived unfair advantage in cost of production. The UK and the EU are already dealing with this issue and implementation plans are in process.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3798/show

 

[Attila the Hen]

Wow. I'm impressed with your knowledge. Thank you for commenting. There is always more to the story than we know.
I should have added a personal note stating that I support any reform in factory farming when it improves the lives of animals. Chickens tend to be low on the totem pole and regarded as one step up from a vegetable. Obviously, I am fond of chickens and keep them so that I don't have to contribute any more than I do to the misery of millions of animals.
I called the number given for Rep. Graves and found someone answering the phone at 6:00 pm I also called both my Senators and found the same thing. They all went up a notch for that.

 

[OwlLover]

Production farms need to be improved, period. This is good; I'm glad they're finally doing something about it.

 

[BTF1218]

Anyone concerned about the abuse of animals on factory farms should OPPOSE this legislation. Not only would it keep laying hens in battery cages forever, it would also eliminate the rights of voters!

The Stop the Rotten Egg Bill campaign is getting it right. Check it out.

 

[kla37]

Anyone concerned about the abuse of animals on factory farms should OPPOSE this legislation. Not only would it keep laying hens in battery cages forever, it would also eliminate the rights of voters!

The Stop the Rotten Egg Bill campaign is getting it right. Check it out.

Thanks for pointing me to this! I don't eat eggs at all, and I shop like someone who is allergic to them, I don't buy anything with eggs (or meat or dairy). The only eggs my kids eat are the ones from my chickens, or from my neighbors chickens. When they slow down laying in the winter, they just don't eat many at all! Anything that contains eggs, like cookies or cake or anything else is either vegan or I make myself with eggs from my own girls. I don't want to support the current egg producing system at all.

 

[Attila the Hen]

Anyone concerned about the abuse of animals on factory farms should OPPOSE this legislation. Not only would it keep laying hens in battery cages forever, it would also eliminate the rights of voters!

The Stop the Rotten Egg Bill campaign is getting it right. Check it out.

You may be right. I based my initial response on what I was told by the Humane Society. I am not clear yet about what is best. Sorry if i mislead anyone.