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.

 

[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.

 

[dainerra]

It all comes down to a simple phrase "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

As others have pointed out, there is good reason that the industry supports this - they make a few minor concessions now and never have to worry about being harassed again. Not to mention, that they (and the politicians) look like they have done a great and fabulous service in the name of animal rights.

I do like my local Humane Society, the national group? Not so much. In some ways, they aren't alot better than that other group which shall not be named.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

I think i read in the other thread about the united egg producers being part of this.... I hate to burst everyones bubble but they are the people that really caused this whole mess to happen. They are made of of the "big" companies that are the ones that created most of the factory farming. The farmers had to keep there money in the black so what they had to do was move the chickens into smaller and smaller places while making there operations bigger and bigger just to keep up with the big companies. many small farmers were put out by this and just made the big companies bigger. My family has been chicken farming for over 4 generations. My great grandfather had a small hatchery where he would hatch chicks and then distribute them to the small farmers around. then they only had 1-4k chickens on the farm and there were tons of them. I still hear my grandfather say O we used to drop chickens off there with my father. Now try to find a family chicken farm. There are very few and far between. Pretty much I hope there is something in the bill that helps the small farms coperate with the new rules as well as most the time it means brand new equipment that the smaller farms can't afford. Pretty much this is a ploy used by the uep to create a raise in egg prices as well. Since fewer chickens per cage means less eggs being produced which means a raise in price. It happens everytime you go to the grocery store. The price of eggs are controlled by the big companies most of the time. I just hope this new legistation doesn't kill off the few family farms that are still struggling to hang on. I like the idea of this as I already doing cage free with my few chickens and have never liked the caged birds.

 

[chickened]

Why is the science behind good animal husbandry being decided by over emotional voters? This stuff should not in any way be something voters should be voting on and is an abuse of the referendum system, why have representatives?

Let the science decide on this one, keep the emotions out.