BATTERY HEN CAGED EGGS
The Humane Society of U.S. lists Hens in Battery Cages as one of the 6 worst animal offenses in the United
States. www.hsus.org/farm/camp/nbe/.
Right now
95% of American eggs come from chickens stuck their whole lives in
battery cages with less than
 68
inches of spaces, (less than a piece of notebook paper), unable to
spread their wings or move forward or back. The situation is
so stressful, the hens are de-beaked with a hot iron. The wire
cages are slanted, causing foot deformities. Dead birds
often remain with living birds. Mites are lice are rampant,
so growers used air borne insecticides, sprayed directly
into the chicken's face. Cages are stacked 3 and 4 levels
high, with the hens on the top tier defecating on all those below.
These unsanitary conditions necessitate heavy use of antibiotics,
one of the key reasons antibiotics prescribed by doctors no longer
work. With hundreds of thousands per building, these factory
farm battery hens never touch the ground, spread their wings, or
see outside light. With no private nesting box for egg-laying, it
often takes hours in discomfort to produce their one egg per day.
After a year, they quit laying eggs. Corporate owners starve them
for 15 days (about 5% die), to get them to molt which begins the
inhumane process again for a second year. Then all are killed. |
JERRY'S CAGE-FREE EGGS
At
TENNESSEE
VALLEY EGGS,
5000 birds walk freely around in a
50 x 400 foot house. Most cage-free egg producers would have
20,000 in the same size house, giving each bird approximately 1 sq
foot. Jerry provides 4 square feet per bird - with plenty of space
for walking and moving.
 At
night Jerry says they all crowd to one end of the house and cuddle.
He
has sunlight streaming in from windows, with feeders and waters lines the length of the building.
His hens
eat and drink whenever they wish. There are nesting boxes all
around the outside walls. His hens fly up, land on the perch, get into a
nesting box, then settle happily and comfortably to lay
their egg.
 Pictured
above - one of Jerry's mother hens very happily ensconced in her box. Pictured
at left - a second hen having just laid her egg, proudly stands on the
perch,
CROWING loudly for quite some time. Jerry says
most of his hens crow proudly to tell the other hens they've laid their egg!
Tennesseans should be proud to have these incredibly edible and healthy eggs from local hens who are treated humanely.
Jerry needs you to tell your grocer to place his eggs in their
grocery. They're already in healthy stores like Greenlife Grocery,
Nutrition World & Village Market. Now they need to be in ALL area
grocers! We, like Martha Stewart and most
cooking show hosts, need the much healthier brown cage-free eggs
for our health, and to be humane toward the hens. |
