Dalai Lama, Religious Leaders Speak Out Against Battery-Caged Hens

It's hard to miss all the commotion about salmonella-plagued eggs, between tales of woe from coworkers who had to scramble to find "safe" eggs for baking Labor Day weekend treats, and grocery store placards trying to guide customers through the confusion of egg terminology ("all safe," "cage-free," "free range," "organic," "Omega-3 fortified," "certified humane"). Consumers are left pecking over personal choices on one hand and clucking over a morass of legislative proposals on the other. Virtually everyone worries over the health ramifications of factory farming practices. Yet virtually no one seems to be able to agree on a single, sensible and humane strategy to ensure the safety of both the chickens and the eggs.

While legislators sink into the debate over voluntary vs. mandatory guidelines, religious leaders may, in fact, be leading the way toward building consensus. At the end of August, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama added his voice against cage farming cruelty, urging the public to shun battery cage eggs in favor of cage-free products.

In a statement, the Dalai Lama said he's always found the abuse inflicted on hens to be particularly disturbing, and is concerned with how they're treated in industrial food production. "I am troubled to learn about the practice of confining egg laying hens in tiny cages. In these cages, birds cannot engage in their natural behaviours, such as spreading their wings, laying eggs in a nesting area, perching, scratching at the ground, even standing on a solid surface. Each hen has less space to live than the very sheet of paper I have written this letter on. Turning these defenseless animals into egg-producing machines with no consideration for their welfare whatsoever is a degradation of our own humanity."

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate isn't the only religious leader speaking out against battery cages. As early as 2002, Pope Benedict XVI (speaking as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) called battery cage factory farming "a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible."

"More humane and sustainable dietary choices can be a powerful testimony of our faith and service to the Lord, especially in a time when the whole of creation depends so heavily upon our goodwill," urges Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, the bishop of Washington.

And Imam Muhammad Hagmagid Ali, the executive director and vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, says: "The underlying premise of the All Creatures Great and Small Campaign, the compassionate treatment of all animals, including farm animals, is consistent with the highest principles of Muslim belief and practice. The Quran bids us to treat animals with respect and not to abuse them. It teaches us that animals are communities in their own right, that animals speak and praise God in their own way, and that God provides for their sustenance just as He does for our own."

Remind me again how that bumper sticker goes? "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." With religious leaders of every stripe firmly pointing the moral compass away from the cruelties of factory farming, isn't it time for every American to stop and listen to the voice of conscience?

Photo credit: Pumpkinmook