HEN BATTERIES CRITICISED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27302, 19 March 1954, Page 12

HEN BATTERIES CRITICISED

S.P.C.A. BRANCH SEES CRUELTY MOVE TO PETITION PARLIAMENT (New Zealand Press Association) i GISBORNE, March 18. In an endeavour to check the use of hen batteries in New Zealand, the Gisborne branch of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals decided last night to seek support from other branches to petition Parliament. Mr F. R. Bould said: “I think I must have had between 250 3OO telephone calls protesting against an unnecessarily cruel system which, in the long run, may produce more eggs, but of a provenly inferior quality.” He added that persons had complained about the hen’s difficulty in turning round to reach the water container at the back of the cage. “The contention that these hen cages are comparable with birds’ cages is rather -weak,” he continued. ’“Reduce the bird , cages to the size of the hen cages—in proportion—and the canary or budgerigar would batter itself to death. The hen’s wings are cramped close against their bodies.” Mr Bould read a letter from an Auckland resident describing a battery system at Henderson. It was a distressing sight, he wrote, and even businessmen from the city who had seen it were shocked.

Mr J. Dalrymple said that the increased profit for run-keepers did not justify the means. The eggs had paler yolks and appeared to be an inferior product.

POULTRY FARMER’S COMMENT LIVING CONDITIONS OF KENS “This is just a cock and bull story,” said Mr E. Chambers, president of the Canterbury - Westland Registered Poultrykeepers* Association, yesterday afternoon. “If the hens lay well, then it stands to reason that their living conditions must be reasonable. If the living conditions were cruel, then they would not produce.” Mr Chambers said that, so far as he knew, there were no commercial producers in Canterbury using the battery system. There might, however, be many people who ran poultry at their homes, with batteries in the back garden. Thousands of hens were run by poultry keepers under this system overseas and many visitors to whom he had spoken in New Zealand swore by it, said Mr, Chambers. He was lat a loss to understand why the eggs were of an allegedly >poor quality. “If anything, they should be better than the other kind of eggs,” he said. Mr Chambers said the batteries were run in tiers of two or three. Each bird occupied one stall, a generally approved type of stall measuring 18 inches deep, 23 inches high and 15 inches wide. Plenty of feed and water was always available to the birds. In overseas countries, the system had been considerably improved. Feeding and watering was done automatically, and. even the droppings were taken away’ automatically. Mr L. A. Frew, inspector for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Christchurch, said his own personal opinion was that the battery system was true!. The hens had no etercise, and were forced to sit on netting wire all day. Most of them got a type of abscess op their feet. “I think it is cruel, but 1 scientists rule me wrong,” he said.