CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire lawmakers are being asked to guarantee egg-laying hens will have room to spread their wings.
Supporters of two bills told a House committee Friday that the chickens should not be kept in such small cages that they can’t spread their wings. They said the cages – called battery cages – are usually about 67 square inches in size and don’t allow chickens to move properly.
One bill would ban the practice in New Hampshire – though supporters acknowledge there’s no evidence of abuse in the state. The ban also would apply to domesticated turkey, duck, goose and guinea used to produce eggs.
The other bill would require the state to buy its eggs from farmers who don’t confine their hens in the small cages. Supporters said that would help New Hampshire’s egg-producers.
Critics said that would increase the state’s cost to buy eggs for the state prison, the state nursing homes for veterans and the elderly and for young offenders at the youth reformatory.
Judy Reardon, a lobbyist for the New England Brown Egg Council, said the diet at the state prisons already is low in protein and high in starches. Higher-priced eggs will mean fewer eggs offered inmates, she said.
“I would urge you to be more concerned about the human inmates and less concerned about the hen inmates,” she said.
Bill Taylor of Taylor Egg Products in Madbury said he has some “floor birds” in New Hampshire but buys eggs from 500,000 hens in caged operations in other states to supply the state prison. If the state required him to buy eggs from cage-free hens, the price to supply the prison would rise perhaps $60,000 to $75,000 per year. Labor and space costs are much higher for cage-free hens, he said.
Opponents also said there’s no evidence caging chickens harms them. They said rather than tell farmers what to do, the state should make it a priority to buy from local producers.
“This bill does nothing to guarantee the purchase of local eggs, nothing,” said Rob Johnson for the state Farm Bureau.
State Veterinarian Steve Crawford said the practice is appropriate and prevents chickens from fighting. Cage-free chickens – known as free-range or floor birds – can get aggressive and need to be debeaked, he said.
Crawford said he has seized poorly treated poultry in New Hampshire that was not caged.
“Just because they’re out of a cage does not mean they’re being treated properly,” he said.
The Humane Society of the United States is behind a national movement to improve conditions for the hens.
The society asked President Bush last year to use only eggs from cage-free hens at the annual Easter egg roll, but the White House responded it had no plans to change its egg supply.
Humane Society spokesman Paul Shapiro told the House Environment and Agriculture Committee huge factory farms in other states give the hens less space than a single sheet of paper. The hens can’t nest, spread their wings, walk or bathe in dust. He said 300 million egg-laying hens are confined in battery cages across the country – though none are treated that way in New Hampshire.
“They never leave them,” he said.
Last fall, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. announced it is changing its egg-buying policies over the next four years to require egg producers to allow their hens to live outside cages. The company uses about 2.7 million pounds of egg yolks annually.
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On the Net: http://www.hsus.org/; http://www.aeb.org/
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