Cruel Battery Cages Must Be Banned Says RSPCA

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
RSPCA News from the press office

19 September 2005

Cruel Battery Cages Must Be Banned Says RSPCA

In a hard-hitting report, the RSPCA is calling for the Government to stand firm and ban all battery cages for hens from 2012.

Its report, 'The Case Against Cages', says both conventional and so-called 'enriched' battery cages, which would still be allowed under an EU Directive, are inherently cruel to laying hens.

The Directive is expected to be reviewed by Member States early next year. The RSPCA wants to see all battery cages replaced with barn or free-range systems that provide better welfare standards.

Independent research(2) for the RSPCA found that multi-tier barn systems offer egg producers a competitive financial alternative to cruel cage systems. The cost of converting from conventional battery cages, which will be banned under the Directive, to multi-tier barn systems would be comparable to converting to 'enriched' cages.

"Claims by the egg industry of excessive cost preventing a faster move towards higher welfare egg production – unlike more progressive policies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland – do not add up," says David Bowles, Head of the RSPCA's External Affairs.

"No longer can the Government stand behind research(5) quoting industry averages and compare cage systems with far more expensive free-range systems. Instead of moving to 'enriched' battery cages, egg producers can convert to multi-tier barn systems which are economically viable and provide a better life for millions of birds."

"We already know from a recent MORI poll(4) that 85 per cent of people in Britain think battery cages are cruel and most believe that cages should be banned now. The same is true in Europe, where a Euro-barometer survey in June showed a majority of European consumers are willing to pay more for animal welfare-friendly food products and want such products to be easier to identify."

The Society is urging consumers, the majority of who think battery cages are cruel, to support farmers who want to move to higher welfare systems, by only buying eggs labelled barn, free-range, freedom food or organic.

Increasingly consumers are choosing higher welfare eggs – 10 years ago less than 15 per cent of eggs in Britain came from hens housed in free-range or barn systems, but by 2004 that figure had risen to 34 per cent. Retailers like Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have moved entirely to using eggs from non-caged hens in their products.

A MORI poll(3) in January this year found nearly two-thirds of people were confused by egg labelling and only 36 per cent correctly identified the type of egg production from the label. Terms like 'farm fresh' do not mean that eggs come from hens kept in higher welfare systems, such as barn or free range, but may be produced in battery cages.

• The RSPCA believes – and scientific evidence shows – that both conventional and 'enriched' battery cages, including 'colony' cages housing 60 birds or more are unacceptable on welfare grounds, as they do not adequately satisfy the hens' basic behavioural and physical needs.
• So-called 'enriched' battery cages provide each hen with just (50 cm²) more useable space – less than the size of a beer mat, with insufficient space to stretch and flap their wings or adequately use the nest box and perches in the cages.

RSPCA research(1) found that converting to higher welfare multi-tier barn systems is similar to the cost of moving to poor welfare 'enriched' cages. Depending on the size of the unit, this worked out at between 1p and 30p more per bird per year for a farmer with an existing building and between 19p and 49p more per bird per year for a farmer starting from scratch.