Battery farmed eggs remain the choice of many consumers due
to their low price.
Coery Blakeborough of Gore High School wrote a well
researched article putting the case for economy over welfare,
assuming in the end that it is OK to keep animals in inhumane
cages if it saves the consumer money.
However this doesn't take into account that our Animal
Welfare Act in New Zealand finds cage egg production
inhumane, and against the law, were it not for the
"exceptional circumstances" allowed for ecomomic reasons in
the animal welfare codes.
The movement of egg industry out of cages and into barns
or free range is similar to that in Europe and consumers are
willingly paying the extra dollars to support that.
Gandi said "one can measure the greatness and the moral
progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its
animals".
I am sure that Coery would not like New Zealand to be
measured on the way it treats the cramped, featherless egg
laying machines that are our battery chickens that
live up to 18 months in cages, unable to stand to full
height, flap their wings or get away from their feather
pecking cage mates.
The SPCA Blue Tick guarantee of good welfare for farmed
animals ensures that consumers get what they are paying for
and consumers buying barn or free range eggs contribute to a
better life for the birds they depend on to produce their
breakfast.
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