Proposed Legislation Means Positive Steps for Egg Laying Hens: How You Can Help

Battery cages are one of the worst examples of the brutal treatment of animals and 260 million egg laying hens are subjected to them for their entire lives. Each hen has less space than a sheet of paper on which to spend her entire life. Virtually unable to move, these animals can't perch, nest, or dust bathe, according to the Humane Society. In their entire lives they may never even get to spread their wings. It's sad, it's disgusting, and it breaks my heart.

It's a product of the fact that in this country proper rules are not in place to protect these animals. There is currently no federal protection against the inhumane treatment of animals, only a regulation that covers humane slaughter but that doesn't even apply to birds, according to Civil Eats.

But new proposed legislation promises to change all that in a big way. Here is the new proposed agreement between the Humane Society and the United Egg Producers, via Civil Eats:

- Eliminate new construction of barren battery cages, and replace the existing cages, through a phase-in, with new "enriched colony cage" housing systems that provide each hen nearly double the amount of space they're currently allotted. (And unlike battery cages, these are generally 12-foot-long, four-foot-wide enclosures.)

- Require that these new cages provide environmental enrichments that will allow hens

- to engage in important natural behaviors, such as perches, nesting boxes, and scratching areas.

- Mandate labeling on all egg cartons to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs, such as "eggs from caged hens," "eggs from cage-free hens" or "eggs from free-range hens."

- Prohibit forced molting through starvation, which involves withholding all food from birds for up to two weeks in order to manipulate the laying cycle.

- Mandate euthanasia standards for spent hens. Prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses. Prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don't meet these requirements.

As you can see the agreement is historic and if passed would mean big changes for hens.

On the next page, learn how you can help the hens!