Did you know that most hens used to produce eggs spend their entire lives confined in cages so small that they cannot even turn around or spread their wings? Just imagine, each hen has cage space that is less than the area of a piece of letter-sized paper. “Battery hens” as they are called suffer from a variety of illnesses as a result of the deplorable and unnatural conditions in which they are forced to live.
When their laying cycle is over, many hens are then purposefully starved for up to 14 days to induce yet another laying cycle. This starvation practice is referred to as “forced molting” and can cause extreme suffering and death.
Nobel Prize winner and author, Dr. Konrad Lorenz, has stated: "The worst torture to which a battery hen is exposed is the inability to retire somewhere for the laying act. For the person who knows something about animals it is truly heart-rending to watch how a chicken tries again and again to crawl beneath her fellow-cage mates to search there in vain for cover."
Zoologist and author, Dr. Desmond Morris, has stated: "Anyone who has studied the social life of birds carefully will know that theirs is a subtle and complex world, where food and water are only a small part of their behavioural needs. The brain of each bird is programmed with a complicated set of drives and responses that set it on the path to a life full of special territorial, nesting, roosting, grooming, parental, aggressive and sexual activities in addition to the simple feeding behavior. All these are denied the battery hens."
Don’t support the cruelty associated with battery-cages. While chickens raised on cage- free farms don’t have an idyllic life, it is a far better than the life “battery hens” endure.
IF YOU BUY EGGS, BUY ONLY FREE RANGE CAGE-FREE ORGANIC.
Cage-free/free-range organic eggs are now readily available at most supermarkets. If your market does not sell cage-free/free-range organic eggs, ask that they get them.
Also, please ask your NYS Assemblymember and NYS Senator to support A. 107 and S. 2957 which require cage-free housing for egg-laying hens. These bills are sponsored by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and Senator Brian Kavanagh. The Humane Society of New York helped to draft this legislation.
To help take action on any of these or other animal protection bills pending before the NYS Legislature, use the methods below to reach lawmakers.
If you do not know their names or contact information, go to www.nyassembly.gov and www.nysenate.gov. If you provide your address, you can get this information. In your communication, mention that you are a constituent and include your address.
Name: Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Majority Leader
Phone: (518)455-2585
Email: scousins@nysenate.gov
Fax: (518)426-6811;
Address: Room 907, Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12247
Name:
Carl E. Heastie, Assembly Speaker
Phone: (518)455-3791
Email: speaker@nyassembly.gov
Fax: (518)455-4812
Address: Room 932, Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248