Saturday 19 January 2008
Compassion not burglary, says battery hen activist
Media Release: Open Rescue Collective
Open Rescue Collective activist Mark Eden is facing burglary charges relating to the November 2006 rescue of 20 battery
hens from Turk's Poultry, an intensive egg farm in Foxton owned by Ron Turk.
Eden's jury trial, scheduled for late 2008, will be the first of its kind in New Zealand. Eden is challenging the
property status of animals under the Animal Welfare Act 1999. He maintains that by removing battery hens from Turks
farm, he was mitigating suffering, not stealing property.
Eden says "Jim Anderton's over-ruling of the Parliament's Regulations Review Committee's 2006 decision that battery
cages are actually in breach of the Animal Welfare Act is outrageous considering that a 2002 Colmar Brunton survey
showed 79 per cent of New Zealanders thought battery cages unacceptable, and wanted them banned".
"Since Jim Anderton so blatantly disregards breaches of legislation, why should members of Open Rescue abide by
so-called animal welfare legislation that does nothing to protect animals but in fact protects the industries that abuse
them? Animals are afforded no rights under the Act and are deemed as nothing more than property to be owned and
exploited".
"Open Rescue activists rescued 15 battery hens in Auckland just before Christmas and more recently rescued 31 battery
hens from appalling conditions in Christchurch. Its great to see caring people take direct and compassionate action for
animals on factory farms. I fully support the actions of these people and know there will be many more rescues in 2008."
Mark Eden and Open Rescue supporters will be staging a protest today outside the Turks Poultry Slaughterhouse at 11am,
urging consumers to boycott cruel caged eggs.
Contact Mark Eden for further comment, 021 026 49406
ENDS
NOTES
(1) Turks Poultry Slaughterhouse, State Highway One, Foxton.
(2) Mr. Eden is pleading not guilty to the theft of the hens from the intensive egg farm. The 20 hens were rescued from
horrendous conditions on Turk's farm in November 2006 and were placed into new homes for rehabilitation.
(3) The New Zealand Open Rescue Collective formed in 2006 after New Zealand activists became immensely frustrated with
the Government's lack of real action for animals on factory farms.
20 years of campaigning against factory farming using legal means such as protesting and lobbying saw little to no
changes for animals. The Collective's aims are to openly rescue animals from places of abuse, to expose hidden suffering
and to consistently provide irrefutable evidence why factory farming should be banned.