Cage-Free Egg Campaign

The egg industry is one of the worst examples of animal cruelty in agribusiness. Millions of hens spend their lives in small battery cages packed so full that they cannot even stretch their wings, let alone engage in any other natural activity, such as nesting or foraging. Factory farm hen houses are made up of rows upon rows of these battery cages stacked one on top of the other. This set up results in waste from the chickens above falling on those below. These horrible conditions leave the hens in very poor health with hardly any veterinary care.

Cage-free facilities remove the cages and allow the hens to move about on the ground. The quality of life for these hens is so much better than those stuck in battery cages. They have more space to run around and socialize. Battery cages are so awful that the countries in the European Union, such as Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden are completely banning them. A few cities in the U.S., such as Cambridge, MA, West Palm Beach and New Port Richey, FL, are following suit. Big companies like Whole Foods, Earth Fare, and Ben&Jerry's have switched to exclusively using cage-free eggs. Over 160 universities are now serving cage-free eggs in their campus dining facilities.

SOS is trying to convince the University of Georgia Dining Services stop supporting the torture of these chickens in battery cages and switch to cage-free eggs. There are many things you can do to help: write a letter or an article for the Red&Black supporting cage-free eggs, write an email to the director of Dining Services J. Michael Floyd (mfloyd@uga.edu) requesting cage-free eggs or make the request on a Dining Services comment card located at all four campus dining halls. Also, you can make the switch in your own kitchen. Stop buying eggs that are the result of an inhumane practice. If there is a larger demand for cage-free eggs, battery-cage facilities will be phased out in favor of cage-free ones. We really can make a difference.

For more information on the Cage-Free Egg Campaign led by the Humane Society of the United States, go to http://www.hsus.org/farm/camp/nbe/