Ex Battery Hen Rescue

How do they become battery hens?

They are bred purely for the purpose of maximum egg laying.

Hybrids - cross between 2 breeds.

So the industry gets the best from both breeds, good egg layers, and sexable at hatching.

The young cockerels are 'dispatched' at a couple of days by being gassed or thrown live into a large mincer which kills them instantly, quick but horrific. Are we as a civilised country (or supposed to be) actually happy with this means of death for so many defenceless innocent chicks? No-one wants the cockerels.

See the photo above of all the day old cockerel chicks which are on the conveyor belt to death. Straight down into the mincing machine. This is what happens, so the consumer can buy CHEAP EGGS FROM BATTERY HENS.

Click on the link and take a look at Compassion In World Farming and see the video.

Compassion In World Farming needs your support. The chickens, cockerels and other farm animals need your support.

The young hens are kept intensively until they are approx 18-20 weeks - near egg laying age. They are then transferred into the 'battery farms'.

It is here they spend the next 12 months - cooped up in an A4 size sheet of paper space.

No room to turn round, nowhere to go, nothing to do, no natural light, fed high protein food with so many additives - to prevent bacterial infection, worms, to get good yolk colour etc, etc...

The food and water is constantly in front of them and they have nothing else to do but eat and lay eggs.

No perches, they sleep in their wire crates.

They have false or extended daylight hours by keeping the lights on for much of the day to encourage them to lay.

Then What?

Well at 18 months old they are past their maximum producing egg laying days for the industry, so they are sent off to be slaughtered.

Here they are strung upside down on a conveyor belt and pass an electric saw - and off falls their heads.

Nice eh?

Did you know that 18 months old is very young for a hen? Most hens can and do live for up to 10 years or more - so 18 months is nothing at all - but because they spend approx 18 hours of their days for 18 months of their lives under false lighting to stimulate them into laying more eggs, they are spent out of eggs for mass production.

Battery cages are due to be banned in January 2012 across the EU, but due to lobbying from the poultry industry the farmers may still be allowed to use battery cages, called 'enriched cages'.