20 March 2012

Secret Colony Battery Cage System Exposed

Secretly filmed footage taken inside the largest battery egg farm in New Zealand shows a dark future for New Zealand’s three million laying hens.

Last night Campbell Live showed covertly filmed footage taken by animal rights investigators at Mainland Poultry’s main operation north of Dunedin. The footage reveals a grim new reality for egg-laying hens. It shows tens of thousands of hens cramped inside a new type of battery cage, called a ‘colony cage’. These new cages are being touted by the egg industry as a suitable alternative to conventional battery cages and are expected to gain the approval of the Minister for Primary Industries, David Carter.

“Mainland Poultry has refused the media access to these new battery cages and it is easy to see why,” says SAFE director Hans Kriek. “They do not want the public to see the abhorrent conditions the animals are forced to live in. They do not want to explain to consumers why as many as 60 hens are cramped inside cages so small they have barely any room to move. They will also have difficulty explaining the so-called enrichments which are merely window dressing than meaningful improvements to bird welfare.”

New Zealand and international animal welfare agencies have condemned the colony battery cages, declaring they “fail to properly meet the hens' physical or behavioural needs.” Renowned animal behaviourist, Jonathan Balcombe, says of the cages that “any housing condition that confines an animal to the indoors, away from the sun and the grass and the opportunity to forage and live as nature intended, is inadequate for fulfilling a hen’s natural behaviours.”

The Government is expected to soon release a new welfare code for layer hens and indications are that it will allow the introduction of the colony battery cages.

“It would be appalling if the Government would allow yet another cage system to be introduced. Colony battery cages do not provide the hens with the opportunity to display their normal behaviour as required by the Animal Welfare Act, so why bring in another cruel system that again breaks the law?” asks Mr Kriek.

Opinion polls show that eight out of ten New Zealanders are opposed to battery hen cages and SAFE believes the public will be shocked at the sight of the colony battery cages. “I believe that people will be outraged that hens will continue to suffer and I predict their introduction will bring an escalation in animal activism,” says Mr Kriek.

Video footage and still shots of colony cages are available on request. For more on colony cages visit SAFE's website.

ENDS

© Scoop Media