A Hen’s Space to Roost

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/weekinreview/15marsh.html?WT.mc_id=WIR-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-AHS-081610-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click


By BILL MARSH
Published: August 14, 2010

Which came first — consumer preference for humane farming, or pressure from animal welfare advocates?

Some combination of the two is driving big changes in the industrialized treatment of farm animals, including egg-laying hens, the vast majority of which live out their lives packed tightly in “battery cages.”

Ohio, the second-largest producer of eggs after Iowa, is the latest to adjust its standards. Animal welfare advocates and farmers there agreed recently to phase out small crates for gestating hogs and veal calves, and to ban new cages for egg-laying hens. (Existing cages can remain.)

Commercial egg farmers see an animal-rights agenda at work from “groups who are opposed to consumption of our products,” said Mitch Head, a spokesman for the United Egg Producers, a trade group. But the big producers also benefit from the growing demand for eggs from cage-free and free-range birds. Most of those eggs, according to Mr. Head, come from the same large operations that use cages, not from smaller farms. Big farms already have the birds, expertise and transportation in place — some hens just need to be released from their cages.

Here is how egg-laying hens — not chickens raised for meat — are confined on American farms.

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The link at "here" goes to a page where you can see the chickens packed into cages.
It notes that "97% of all eggs produced in the U.S. are from hens that live in tightly packed battery cages, with no way to roam outside". Heck, there's no way to roam inside. Just turning around might be a problem.
"1% of U.S. eggs are from free-range birds that have the option to go outdoors. Animal advocates say this is often a phantom access. Doors are small and don't accommodate the whole flock, or they are open for limited times."

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