MEDIA RELEASE

14 April 2011

Proposed Colony Cages A Cruel Joke

The country’s leading voice against battery hen cages says the new colony cages proposed by the egg industry are nothing short of a cruel joke. Thirty-year veteran animal welfare campaigner and former SPCA inspector Hans Kriek says the Government is being duped into thinking colony cages are animal welfare-friendly.

Leading animal advocacy organisation SAFE says it now has some of the world¹s most-respected animal welfare agencies behind it.

Hans Kriek, also a SAFE director, visited New Zealand¹s largest egg producer, Mainland Poultry, yesterday to witness firsthand the new colony cage systems put forward by the egg industry as a suitable replacement for current battery hen cages. Mr Kriek says he is appalled that anyone could suggest these new cages provide adequate welfare for hens.

³I saw what I¹ve seen on every other factory farm ‹ thousands of hens crammed into wire cages. Each bird still has around an A4 sheet of paper-sized living space. There is no way they can express their normal behaviour as required by animal welfare legislation.

The egg industry would have us believe that caging hens is their only option and in the birds¹ best interest. It is not, and colony cages are still a cruel way of housing chickens,² says Mr Kriek.

Mr Kriek says he is concerned the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) may already have been swayed by the demands of egg farmers. ²In the preliminary code review discussion document, NAWAC did not bother considering the economic aspects of transferring to non-cage systems nor did it seek research from the industry into conversion to cage-free systems,² says Mr Kriek.

SAFE is particularly concerned, given colony cages have been internationally condemned by most well-respected animal welfare organisations, and has called on the support of leading international animal welfare agencies. They have teamed up with Compassion in World Farming (UK), Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (UK), Humane Society of the United States, Humane Farming Association (UK), Animal Welfare Institute (US) and World Society for the Protection of Animals, among others, in developing an international charter to have colony cages banned.

SAFE has signed a position statement that opposes modified cages, also referred to as furnished, enriched or colony cages. The statement says: Modified cages fail to properly meet the hens' physical or behavioural needs. They provide an unacceptably restrictive amount of space per bird; severely restrict many important physical activities, including running, flying, and wing-flapping; and do not permit unrestrained perching and dustbathing.

The severe restriction of the hens' ability to exercise is likely to lead to frustration, bone weakness, and osteoporosis‹clear indicators of poor welfare. Despite the modifications, these cages are unable to provide an acceptable level of welfare for hens. Š² ³It will be difficult for NAWAC and the Egg Producers Federation to dismiss the welfare concerns of some of the world¹s most-respected organisations and we hope common sense will prevail, resulting in a ban on all cage systems in favour of less cruel farming systems,² says Mr Kriek.

SAFE TAKES MESSAGE TO EGG INDUSTRY At midday today SAFE campaigners will hold a colourful demonstration at an undisclosed location in Auckland, highlighting that the new colony cage is nothing but another cruel cage

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