Farm Animals

A promising and unprecedented agreement has been reached that could improve the lives of hundreds of millions of hens across America.

Under the agreement, United Egg Producers (UEP), a cooperative representing the owners of approximately 80 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hens, and the Humane Society of the United States will jointly push for federal legislation to improve the welfare of all laying hens in the United States. The ASPCA and other animal welfare groups have also agreed to support this legislation. This could lead to the first federal law improving the treatment of chickens used for food, the first federal law improving the daily conditions for animals on factory farms, and the first federal farmed-animal protection legislation in more than 30 years.

The agreement came as two ballot campaigns aimed at improving conditions for egg-laying hens in Washington and Oregon—both of which were championed by the ASPCA and our citizen Advocacy Brigade—were gaining momentum. As a result of today’s news, the initiative drives will be suspended.

"This is a historic and ground-breaking proposal, and the ASPCA calls on Congress to swiftly enact legislation to protect hens from some of the most shocking abuses on factory farms,” states Nancy Perry, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the ASPCA. “The legislation and ballot initiatives on hen welfare already adopted in California and Michigan, and those pending in Washington and Oregon, prove the American public will no longer tolerate the mistreatment of animals anywhere.”

More than 90 percent of egg-laying hens in the United States are confined in enclosures called “battery cages.” The footprint of one of these cages is smaller than a single sheet of standard letter-size paper—they are so small that the hens within them can’t even extend their wings, and the discomfort and stress they experience manifests in constant self-mutilation and fighting. If enacted, the proposed language advocated by UEP and animal welfare groups would, among other improvements:

• Require the nationwide elimination of barren battery cages over a phase-out period, replacing them with hen housing systems that provide birds with nearly double the amount of space;
• Require environmental enrichments so birds can engage in important natural behaviors;
• Mandate that all egg cartons be labeled to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs, such as “eggs from caged hens” or “eggs from cage-free hens.”

For updates on this amazing development, please sign up to receive Advocacy Brigade emails from the ASPCA.

During the last week of June, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland brokered a deal between animal welfare groups and farm interests to halt the promotion of a citizen-backed ballot initiative intended to prevent some of the cruelest practices common in factory farming. As in most of the U.S., veal calves in Ohio are currently allowed to be chained in small crates without enough room to turn around; sows are confined in gestation crates only a few inches wider and longer than the sows themselves; and egg-laying hens are housed in tiny “battery” cages with less space, per bird, than the size of an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper.

During the recent negotiations, Ohioans for Humane Farms and the Humane Society of the United States agreed not to submit the gathered signatures for a ballot initiative in return for adoption of the following measures:

• A ban on veal crates by the year 2017.
• A ban on new gestation crates after December 31, 2010, and existing crates must be phased out over the next 15 years.
• A moratorium on permits for new battery cage confinement facilities for laying hens (this does not affect current facilities).
• A ban on the transport of downer cows for slaughter. A downer cow is one who has become too sick or injured to walk unassisted.
• Adoption of humane euthanasia methods for sick or injured farm animals.
• Enactment of legislation establishing felony penalties for cockfighting.
• Enactment of legislation to regulate puppy mills.
• Enactment of a prohibition on the sale and/or possession of wild and dangerous animals.

The ASPCA encouraged our Ohio members to sign hard-copy petitions to place the initiative on the state ballot in November. While this compromise agreement did not accomplish everything we hoped for, it is a good first step toward ending confinement practices, and we welcome these broad, sweeping accomplishments for the animals.

We wish to thank all of our Ohio supporters who took the time to sign petitions—and special thanks are due to those who worked so hard to gather signatures. Your efforts were instrumental in bringing the Ohio Farm Bureau to the table. Please be mindful that all of the signatures gathered during the petition drive remain valid and can be submitted in coming years if the agreement is not fully honored.

We hope that efforts such as the one in Ohio will continue to spread across the country, and that soon the cruel practices of factory farms will be a thing of the past. To help the ASPCA and your fellow animal advocates achieve humane victories, sign up to receive legislative email alerts from the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade.