MEDIA RELEASE

21 April 2011

Wellington Vigil For Caged Hens

The Capital¹s commuters will be invited to be crammed inside a human-sized cage in downtown Wellington from 8am this morning to experience living conditions of a battery hen.

National advocacy group SAFE says if people choose to buy eggs from caged hens then they should appreciate the state and fate of the humble hen laying their eggs. The vigil also serves to protest the egg industry¹s proposed new colony cages. ³The egg industry would have us believe that caging hens is the only option and in the birds¹ best interest. They say the planned new colony cages are a suitable replacement for current battery hen cages.

However these cages have been condemned as unacceptable by many of the world¹s leading, most-respected animal welfare agencies,² says SAFE director Hans Kriek. ³In these new systems thousands of hens are still crammed into wire cages. Each bird still has around an A4 sheet of paper of living space,² says Mr Kriek. ³There is no way that they would be able to express their normal behaviour as required by animal welfare legislation.²

Mr Kriek says he is concerned that the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) has already been swayed by demands from egg farmers. ³In the preliminary code review discussion document [for layer hens] NAWAC did not bother considering the economic aspects of transferring to non-cage systems nor did it seek research from the industry to convert to cage free systems,² says Mr Kriek. SAFE has also 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), World Society for the Protection of Animals, among others in an international charter to have colony cages banned.

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 in banning all cage systems,² says Mr Kriek. For twelve hours today commencing at 8am at Civic Square, SAFE campaigners will maintain a presence in the cage to gather submissions to ban cage farming of hens, with passersby invited to join them to experience life in a cage. Green MPs Sue Kedgley and Gareth Hughes will join the vigil at noon to show their support. The public has until the 29th April to make a submission to the government to ban cages for hens.

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