The new Code of Welfare for hens has just been released, and the New Zealand Poultry Industry is already in overdrive, vociferously arguing that we can't afford to give up raising hens in cages, or switch to more humane systems.
The industry claims they need to be able to keep raising hens in battery cages for at least another 20 years. And then possibly they will switch to yet another cage system, which they call an 'enriched cage' or a 'colony system.'
The so-called 'enriched cage' will have a perch and nesting box, but will still only allow a hen about the size of A-4 sheet of paper of space.
A cage is a cage by any other name, and hens locked inside these cages will still suffer all of their miserable lives, from not being able to exercise or express natural animal behaviours.
They will still be forced to stand on sloping floors which results in foot damage and leg weakness to hens. And they will inevitably suffer from skin damage and feather loss, too, from rubbing against the cages. Forcing them to live this way is surely a form of animal abuse.
The industry has commissioned two 'economic analyses' to support its case that egg prices would soar if cages were phased out.
But the industry conveniently ignores the fact that demand for free range and barn raised eggs increased by 30% last year and that the cost of barn eggs (around 20 cents more than a cage egg) would inevitably decrease as more egg farmers converted to barn and free range systems.
They also ignore the fact that so called enriched cage systems have been condemned as cruel by animal welfare campaigners around the world, and that at least two countries, Austria and Germany, have already decided to ban caged systems entirely, and there is mounting consumer pressure for other countries to do the same.
It also ignores the fact that public expectations about animal welfare have risen significantly in recent years -and most consumers find it unacceptable, in the 21st century, to imprison millions of animals in cages indefinitely.
And most important of all, it avoids answering some fundamental questions - what gives poultry producers the right do to take away hen's freedom, and their right to enjoy a normal life, and lock them away for life? What crime have they committed to be treated this way? And if it's a crime to lock a dog in a cage for all its life, why isn't it a crime to treat hens in this way?
Even the National Animal Welfare Advisory committee admits that keeping hens in cages breaches the purposes of the Animal Welfare Act. So it would therefore be absurd to encourage poultry farmers to invest millions in a new cage system, when it is inevitable that consumer pressure will force the new cage systems to be abandoned.
So I would urge the Poultry Industry to learn a lesson from the unfortunate experience of the pork industry, which suffered a huge loss of credibility by its obdurate refusal to phase out sow crates.
Instead of behaving like King Canute, and trying to stem the turning tide by clinging to cruel cage systems, the poultry industry needs to realise that it is in their, and New Zealand's interests, to phase out all cage systems and switch to more humane barn and free range farming systems.
New Zealand needs to be a world leader in promoting humane food. By doing this consumers and exporters will benefit.
