California: Proposition 2: Arguing cruelly confined or contentedly caged hens

Proposition 2: Arguing cruelly confined or contentedly caged hens

last updated: October 12, 2008 07:50:29 AM
By John Holland

By late morning, the day's work was done for most of the 150,000 or so residents of a henhouse south of Livingston.

The eggs laid by the hens passed by their small cages on conveyor belts, bound for the packing plant next door. The birds rested, six to a cage, sometimes bumping each other when they moved about.

To most people in the egg industry, this is a picture of contentment. They say these cages -- roughly 2 feet long by a foot tall -- keep the hens comfortable and productive.

"Yes, they are content," said Jill Benson, vice president of J.S. West & Cos. of Modesto, which owns these hens. "You can hear them clucking and singing."

To critics of the industry, it's more like a cry for help. They are behind a Nov. 4 ballot measure that would outlaw the cages in California as of 2015.

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The Humane Society of the United States, one of the main sponsors of the measure, says hens in their proper element are social animals with complex behavior: They build nests with twigs and leaves. They poke the ground with their beaks and claws in search of food. They bathe by rolling in dust. They flap their wings and preen.

"(The measure) just says that as a basic proposition, animals built to move should be allowed to move," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society. "They should be allowed to turn around and engage in basic behaviors, which are now frustrated in these intensive confinement systems."

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The cages were dense with female chickens. Industry guidelines allow as little as 67 square inches of floor space per hen -- less than a sheet of letter paper, the Humane Society often points out.


more...
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/460557.html