(CA) ABC-7: New Target In Battery-Cage Chicken Crusade

[Guest guest]

New Target In 'Battery-Cage' Chicken Crusade

 

By Dan Noyes, ABC 7 News

 

Feb. 1, 2006 - We have a follow-up now to an ABC7 I-Team investigation

into the eggs you buy. It's been almost three months since we first

showed you undercover pictures of battery cages -- a common farming

technique used to confine hens. Now there's new fallout from our

report.

 

There was action in both the courts and in the grocery stores on

Wednesday. The Humane Society filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior

Court and Trader Joe's has pulled its store-brand battery cage eggs off

the shelves. We also have new undercover pictures from Northern

California egg farms.

 

Our tape from the group " East Bay Animal Advocates " shows how 95 percent

of all eggs in this country are produced -- in battery cages. As many as

10 hens are crammed into a single cage. They can't walk or even spread

their wings. Their beaks have to be clipped so they won't cannibalize

each other. The lack of activity sometimes leads to paralysis or to

bones so brittle, they break.

 

Activist: " Just so many animals smashed into a small location that

couldn't move. "

 

This activist snuck into a supplier for Trader Joe's in the Central

Valley town of Hilmar and took these pictures of battery cages.

 

Activist: " Certainly if most people knew the animal cruelty and

suffering that went into battery egg production, they would not support

it. "

 

The Humane Society of the United States had been pressuring Trader Joe's

for months to stop selling eggs from battery cages. Just four days after

the I-Team first broadcast these pictures in November 2005, the company

gave in. Beginning today (Wednesday), Trader Joe's will sell only

cage-free eggs under its brand name, and the company sells more than

100-million of its private label eggs a year.

 

Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States CEO: " And I think the

logic is there. Most Americans don't want to see animals reared for

food, whether it's for eggs or for meat, treated in an entirely

inhumane way. "

 

Wayne Pacelle says Whole Foods, Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, and

cafeterias at 75 colleges and universities have switched to cage-free

eggs because of the Humane Society campaign. Their next target? Ben &

Jerry's.

 

Wayne Pacelle: " We're in discussions with them. They've told us it looks

very promising. We're hoping that's going to be the next marker in our

move to eliminate battery cage hen production in this country. "

 

Ben & Jerry's already uses cage-free eggs in their ice cream sold in

Europe, but they use battery cage eggs in this country. No comment from

the company headquarters in Vermont tonight, but their latest " Social

and Environmental Assessment " says, " We've not yet found an

economically manageable way to use free-range eggs for our U.S.

production. "

 

On the other front today, Humane Society lawyers filed a lawsuit in San

Francisco Superior Court. It says the State Board of Equalization and

Controller Steve Westly " have wasted and illegally used public funds "

by giving tax breaks to farmers for the purchase of battery cages.

 

Jon Lovvorn, Humane Society of the United States Lawyer: " The cruelty

code specifically requires anyone confining an animal to give it an

adequate exercise area. We don't think battery cages provide that. So,

the BOE expenditure of funds to subsidize those cages violates state

law and that's the basis for our lawsuit. "

 

Officials at the Board of Equalization wouldn't comment on the lawsuit

and Steve Westly's office says the controller " just cuts the checks and

follows the law. "

 

By the way, Trader Joe's still sells battery cage eggs from other

companies. They're cheaper than cage free and some people care more

about the price than the issue.

 

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ABC News Link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team & id=3868039

 

ABC Comments Online:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team & id=3308976

 

HSUS Online:

http://www.hsus.org/farm_animals/farm_animals_news/hsus_sues_ca_battery_cage_tax\

_break.html

 

EBAA Egg Investigation Online: http://www.cal-eggs.com