BATTERY EGG LAYING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 8

BATTERY EGG LAYING

British Complaint Of Cruelty

(NJZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 17. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, complaining that 5,000,000 hens in Britain are cruelly treated, has started a campaign to make the battery laying system illegal, says the “Daily Mail.” Denmark has banned the system already.

Battery egg production means keeping the bird enclosed in a hen coop about the size of a large biscuit tin in which it cannot turn around. The hen is fed automatically every few hours and has room to move, but by means of electric light is encouraged to “work” between 14 and 16 hours a day. It lays 30 or 40 more eggs a year than hens which roam freely on farms.

The R.S.P.C.A. says: “We object to anything that means a bird or animal must lead a restricted, unnatural life. A hen becomes nothing more than an egg-laying machine. The suggestion that battery laying is cruel is disputed by the Agriculture Ministry. “The hens live sheltered, comfortable and healthy lives,” says the Ministry. “If there was anything wrong they would stop laying. “They escape the wind and cold of the farmyard and the bullying of greedier hens.” A Ministry official said that the ban on battery laying would reduce home output by 150,000,000 eggs a year.